


Call of the Wild

by Dreamshaper



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, This has a few fight scenes, also slowburn holtzbert, and descriptions of injury and blood, but nothing too graphic I think?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-19 08:47:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 28,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8198765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamshaper/pseuds/Dreamshaper
Summary: If ghosts are real, then what else is? The Ghostbusters learn the hard way that not only ghosts exist when one of them gets injured during a bust and faces some life-altering changes.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Before the story starts, let me be a bit sappy and tell you all how awesome this fandom is. I had the biggest writer's block, then Holtzbert came along and BAM I'm churning out words upon words and it's so much fun. You're all so amazing and welcoming in this fandom <3 and there are so many amazingly creative people in it. May it go on strong for a long time! :D

After the New York incident, it wasn’t often that the government themselves called them to a bust; most of their work in the field came from regular people who had a ghost in their home or business, and the government mooks, as Holtzmann had taken to calling the agents in their black suits, only called them when something quite bad was going down, at a location where more than the owners of the property could be put at risk.

They had called this time, and from what they had described to Abby, the public park which was subjected to nightly hauntings was not haunted by a lone ghost, but by a whole bunch of them, terrorizing nightly walkers and having attacked and injured several people by the time the government finally made their call.

“If what the victims describe is accurate”, Abby filled the rest of the team in as they loaded up on extra weapons, just in case, “we’re dealing not only with a Class IV, but a group of Class VI apparitions, too. There were descriptions of ghost dogs being part of the haunt.”

“Dogs”, Patty echoed, “that is a first.”

“If this is correct, we have to be extra cautious”, Erin instructed, “Class VI ghosts are highly malevolent, not very smart, usually, but very aggressive. If possible, I want one of those bad boys in a trap, but only if we can capture one without endangering ourselves, and with that, I mean you, Holtzmann, no reckless manoeuvres if we deal with a Class VI, alright?”

“Awriiiiight”, Holtzmann replied, grimacing, “but only cause you asked so nicely, hot stuff.”

“Just take care”, Erin strictly told her, for once not blushing brightly as the engineer called her that, too focused on the job at hand; deciding that she liked blushing Erin way better than highly focused and thus unfazed Erin, Holtzmann just let out a vaguely agreeing noise as she strapped her digital control panel to her arm, making sure it was at just the right spot, where she could reach the small buttons easily.

“We focus on the dogs first”, Erin kept laying out the battle plan, “if the information we were given is correct. Take them out, then focus on the Class IV humanoid ghost, and we stay together for this one, no going off in teams and certainly not alone. Let’s go.”

She holstered the proton gun Holtzmann had made for her – _specially_ for her, Abby had teased, having picked up on the way Holtzmann flirted with the physicist, and only with the physicist, no matter how often Erin tried to claim that the engineer flirted with everyone – then got moving, heading towards the garage, the other three close behind her, excitement buzzing in their veins as they got into Ecto-1 and Holtzmann sped out of the garage, taking them to the park where the haunting was happening.

* * *

 

“Well, at least they won’t be hard to find”, Abby whispered as they snuck into the park together, hearing the dogs howl in the distance; Erin nodded her agreement, proton gun already out and her finger on the trigger, the other three now arming themselves, as well, Patty looking decidedly uncomfortable when they could hear more howling, and quite a bit closer, this time.

“Not sure I like the thought of ghost dogs”, Patty mumbled, glancing left and right, as if that would make the ghosts appear faster, “I mean, I’m a dog person, but ghost dogs? No thank you.”

“Better than ghost cats”, Holtzmann commented, looking around too, as always wearing her yellow tinted glasses, even though it was night and dark, “cause I’m a cat person.”

“That doesn’t surprise me the slightest”, Patty dryly told her, “cats are crazy, like you are.”

“Completely crazy”, Holtzmann deadpanned, then they all fell quiet as they head the howls again, unsettlingly close this time – and then, the ghost dogs burst out of the bushes around them, four of them, ectoplasm dripping from their snouts in lieu of saliva, low growls coming from them as they circled the group.

“That looks more like wolves than dogs to me”, Patty pointed out, trying to keep her eyes on all four of the beasts, Erin nodding her agreement – biology had never been her strong suit, but still she could tell that these weren’t former pet dogs which had died, but were closer to wild wolves.

“Back to back”, she instructed, moving slowly so the ghost wolves wouldn’t get aggravated, “remember, these things aren’t all too smart, but highly aggressive. Take care.”

As in response to her words, one of the wolves snarled, then leaped at her; she brought the proton gun up and fired, and even though she knew that gun packed quite of a punch, it didn’t kill the wolf at once, but threw it back, a whimper coming from it as it hit the ground and rolled a few feet – before it laid still for a moment, then struggled back on its feet, growling with much more intensity as it got ready to attack again.

Next to her, Abby and Holtzmann were firing their own weapons at the ghost animals, trying to keep them at bay; Patty stood between the other two, where Erin couldn’t see her, but she figured that this was a good thing, as it put them in a formation which allowed them to keep an eye out in all directions.

The streams of their proton guns lit up the night as they fought, simultaneously keeping an eye out for the fifth ghost they knew was around here somewhere; so far, the humanoid ghost which appeared with these wolves hadn’t made an appearance yet, but Erin figured that it would show up sooner or later, especially when finally, after taking what seemed like an endless amount of damage, two of the ghost wolves perished at last, bursting apart, globs of ectoplasm hitting the floor and splattering all four of the Ghostbusters.

“At least it’s not just you this time”, Abby commented, while Holtzmann cheered “Two down, two to go”; and just then, a shockingly loud roar reached their ears, and they all flinched, none of them taking the finger off the trigger though, eager to take out the remaining two ghost wolves before they could harm one of them.

“That sounded big”, Patty said what they all had been thinking, not daring to look away from the wolf she was shooting at though; the proton beam of her gun and the one of Abby’s held one in check, while Holtzmann and Erin were taking care of the other one, and she briefly wondered what they would do, should a fifth one show up.

And as if her thoughts had jinxed it, exactly this happened; the loud roar came again, followed by a growl, and then, a shockingly large ghost wolf came rushing towards them, ectoplasm dripping from teeth which, even though they were as transparent as the rest of the ghost, looked unpleasantly sharp.

“Erin _look out_!” Erin heard Abby cry out as the wolf launched itself off the ground and shot towards her; and then, seconds before the wolf would have collided with her, a very human body slammed into her and tackled her down to the ground, the wolf sailing past where she had been standing and hitting the ground, another growl coming from it as it turned to face the Ghostbusters again.

Somehow, Erin had managed to not let go of the trigger even when she had been tackled over, and she made sure to keep her finger there, not wanting the large wolf to get backup by its two smaller friends; a bit belatedly, she realized that it had been Holtzmann who’d tackled her, the engineer already getting off of her… and just then, everything happened very fast.

It all happened fast, but Erin saw it as if in slow motion; she saw how Holtzmann started to get back up, her proton gun swinging around to take aim again, while at the exact same moment, the large wolf got moving again, doing so with unsettling speed, a loud roar coming from it as its jaws opened wide.

Erin saw Holtzmann recoil, but it was too little, too late, not enough to get her out of reach; the wolf leaped, and slammed into the engineer, throwing her over and on her back, and then its head shot down and the jaws snapped close, and Holtzmann screamed, sending Erin’s heart into overdrive.

“We have to get that thing away from her!” Abby yelled, “Holtz! Close your eyes now!” She took no time to check if Holtzmann had heard her and had done so, but tossed the proton grenade a second later; it exploded with what Holtzmann referred to as medium poof, and thankfully, it did enough damage to take the large wolf out, Erin rushing to the engineer’s side the moment the ghost was gone, while Holtzmann curled up on her side, pressing one arm against her chest and moaning in dismay.

“Holtz”, the physicist tried to get her attention, kneeling down next to her, but not daring to touch her, not knowing how badly the blonde was hurt; Abby threw them a worried glance, but Patty and she were too busy taking out the remaining ghost wolves to check on the engineer, as well, leaving that task solely in Erin’s hands.

“Holtz”, Erin tried again, frantic now, “let me see, where did it get you? Come on, let me see, we have to…”

She had been planning to say that they had to see how bad it was, if she had to go to the hospital; the words died in her throat though as finally, she got a good look at the injury and her stomach turned, her throat suddenly feeling oddly tight, making it impossible for her to continue speaking.

The wolf had gotten at Holtzmann’s forearm when it had thrown her over, and said arm looked as if it had been through a meat grinder.

“Oh God”, Erin brought out, in a thin, breathless voice; belatedly, she realized that the blood streaming from the gruesome wound probably kept her from seeing even more of it, and again she felt like throwing up, cursing her brain for always overthinking things like this, this followed by the realization that letting Holtzmann see how upset she was perhaps wasn’t the best idea, and she tried her best to sound normal when she spoke on, barely taking note of Abby and Patty finishing the remaining ghost wolves.

“Okay”, she made herself say, “okay, we’ll get you to the car, and to the hospital, they’ll get you patched up, it’s not that bad, really, I’m sure it looks worse than it is…”

“It’s bad”, Holtzmann hoarsely brought out in reply, turning even further, so she could look Erin in the face, silently challenging her to lie, even now, in pain and bleeding, “I can feel it is. I can’t move my fingers…”

“Don’t try to”, Erin advised at once, wishing for something, anything, to cover the wound and staunch the bleeding, “it’s going to be okay, I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Gilbert”, Holtzmann replied, but she sounded oddly weak now, and her face was paling drastically; and just as Erin realized what this meant – _shock, she’s going into shock, do something, don’t let her pass out! –_ exactly that happened, the engineer’s eyes rolling back in her head and her body going slack, Erin’s frantic cry of her name fading away unheard.


	2. Chapter 2

Erin had wanted to drive, and Abby hadn’t let her. That had been the right thing to do, Erin knew, but still she felt aggravated as she sat in the back seat, holding Holtzmann’s unconscious body close; the engineer’s upper half rested in her lap, her arm covered by a makeshift bandage they had put together with Ecto-1’s first aid kit, just enough to staunch the bleeding and keep any dirt from getting into the wound.

Gritting her teeth, Erin held back a comment about how Abby should drive faster; the researcher was over the speed limit as it was, and Erin knew that it would do no good to crash the car and land them _all_ in the hospital, but she still wanted to get there as fast as possible.

Her knowledge on medicine was limited, but she knew a few things, and one of them was that a symptom of shock was cold and clammy skin, along with a bunch of other, even more unpleasant ones; during the last few minutes, she had touched Holtzmann’s cheek a dozen times, just to be sure, and nothing had changed, still the same when she pressed the back of her hand against the engineer’s face again.

Holtzmann’s skin was hot and sweaty and flushed, as if she was burning up from within.

Maybe it was just her face, Erin reasoned, making sure to not bump her injured arm as she shoved her hand into the blonde’s coveralls; her chest felt just as hot though, and just as sweaty, and her heart skipped a beat. This was bad.

 She held back the urge to tell Abby to speed up, reminding herself once again that getting into an accident would only make things worse for all of them; daring to look away from Holtzmann for a moment, she glanced outside, trying to figure out where they were and how much longer it would take them to get to the nearest hospital.

Erin only looked away for a second, but later, irrational as it was, she’d ask herself if she shouldn’t have, if it wouldn’t have happened if she’d kept her eyes on Holtzmann the whole time; she only looked away for a second, and just in that moment, Holtzmann let out a noise which made her blood run cold, a strange mixture of gasp and gurgle, sounding as if she was choking on something.

Instinctively, the physicist tightened her loose hold on the engineer in response to that sound, just having time to once more think _This is bad_ – and then the noise came again, louder and longer this time, loud enough to let Patty hear, the historian turning in the passenger to look back at them with wide, shocked eyes.

“Did that come from Holtzy?” she demanded to know, sounding worried; Erin nodded in response, but before she could say something, the noise came for a third time, and she could feel Holtzmann’s body tense in her arms.

And then, Holtzmann started to convulse, Erin could feel her muscles thrum and twitch against her hands and arms; wide-eyed, the physicist didn’t know what to do, not sure if she should try to keep her still or let her ride it out, her fear only growing to new, impossible heights when the choking sounds came up again, foam spilling from the corners of Holtzmann’s mouth and trickling down her chin to her neck.

“Jesus!” Patty yelped, but Erin barely heard her, her voice drowned out by the horrible noises coming from her friend and the hammering of her own heart, “what’s happening to her?!”

“I don’t know”, Erin gave back, frantic, trying to hold the engineer still now so she wouldn’t end up injuring herself even further, “she just made this sound, and then she started to—”

From one moment to the next, it stopped, and Holtzmann laid dreadfully still.

“…Holtz?” Erin tried after a moment, a second during which she had reassured herself that the engineer was still breathing, “can you hear me?”

Holtzmann’s eyes opened in response, to the relief of the physicist; for a second, she thought she had seen a flash of yellow in the blonde’s eyes, then shrugged it off as a weird reflection of light, forcing herself to smile at the other woman, not wanting her to notice how freaked out she actually was.

“Loud and clear, hot stuff”, Holtzmann told her, sounding completely normal, as if she just hadn’t passed out from shock less than fifteen minutes ago, “and I have to say, your lap is really comfy. I’m good now though.”

And with that, she sat up, ignoring Erin’s cry of “Holtzmann!”; Erin braced herself to catch the engineer, should she faint, but apparently, Holtzmann did indeed feel better, the flush fading from her face and her skin returning to a healthier colour, the usual lively sparkle back in her eyes, apparently no pain plaguing her as she lifted her arm and started peeling off the bandage.

“Holtzmann!” Erin tried again, making a grab for her hand to stop her, “don’t do that, that ghost dog wolf whatever it was got you… quite bad…”

She trailed off as Holtzmann successfully removed the bandage and she got a look at the wound; in the passenger seat, Patty gasped, as well, having seen how bad it had been before the bite had been bandaged up, and not believing her eyes now.

Where just minutes ago, torn and bloody flesh had been, only a few small wounds remained now, and those didn’t look all too deep or painful; smirking, Holtzmann made a fist, then nodded, looking at Patty curiously when the historian let out a soft “Damn”.

“That… was way worse just ten minutes ago”, Erin told her, speaking on when Holtzmann opened her mouth as if to protest, “and don’t tell me now it looked worse than it was. You know I lied when I said that to you, and you couldn’t move your fingers.”

“Must have been the shock”, Holtzmann shrugged, “I’m way better now. Where are we going?”

“Well, the plan was to take you to the hospital”, Abby told her, keeping her eyes on the road, “because that wound did look really bad.”

“Nah”, the engineer gave back at once, “no need for a hospital. Looked worse than it is, even if Erin doesn’t believe it. We can go back to HQ.”

“Maybe we should still have you checked out”, Erin tried, even though she already knew it was a lost cause – Holtzmann didn’t like hospitals on the best of days, and even though they just had witnessed her having a seizure of some kind, she certainly would insist that she was okay, and that there was no need for doctors to poke and prod at her with their various tools.

“Nah”, Holtzmann replied, with a dismissive wave of her hand, “all good. I’m starving though, anyone have a snack? I think I lost my Pringles somewhere in that park.”

She patted her pockets, to no avail though; moments later, her eyes lit up though as she spotted a store up ahead, and she yelled at Abby to stop the car, hopping out and rushing to the store’s entrance, clearly not caring that she still was in her coveralls, and that said coveralls were a mess of slime and blood from their fight.

“We all know she’s not gonna go to the hospital”, Abby was the one to break the silence which had formed after Holtzmann’s hasty departure from Ecto-1, saying out loud what they all were thinking, “and, sadly, we can’t just drag her there against her will. We also know though that it was as bad as it looked, even if she tried to tell us otherwise.”

“We have to keep an eye on her”, Erin decided in response, “I don’t know how this could have healed so fast, but… I’m not sure it’s entirely a good thing. If she, I don’t know, starts acting weird or something…”

“This is Holtzy we’re talkin’ about”, Patty pointed out, “girl’s crazy and acts weird all the damn time.”

“Good point”, Erin had to admit, “well, more weird then. Or a different kind of weird. Let’s just make sure she’s her usual crazy self and not a different kind of crazy, alright?”

Just then, Holtzmann emerged from the store, happily chewing on what appeared to be a Slim Jim, a can of Pringles poking out of her pocket and another Slim Jim in her other hand; and even though she worried that something was seriously wrong with the engineer, Erin found herself smiling, glad that their friend was alright, telling herself that maybe, it really just had looked so much worse than it truly had been, and trying hard to ignore the insistent little voice in her mind which told her otherwise.


	3. Chapter 3

To the surprise of everyone, Holtzmann went straight to bed the moment they had made it back to HQ; she had finished both Slim Jims during the drive back, and apparently, that had been enough to sate her, the engineer tossing her trademark salute at them as she told them she’d go to sleep and sauntered off to the second floor.

“Okay, that is weird, right”, Patty stated the moment she thought the blonde was out of earshot, “I never seen her go to bed so early. Not even after exhausting busts.”

“Me neither”, Erin agreed, “and she didn’t even touch those Pringles, even though there was more than enough time to eat them after she’d gotten done with that dreadful Slim Jim thing.”

“Never knew she liked those”, Abby commented, hanging their proton packs up at the wall, “at least I can’t remember ever seeing her eat one of them.”

“I’ll spend the night”, Erin offered, simultaneously trying to remember if she ever had seen Holtzmann eat that kind of snack before, “just in case anything… happens. I hope we’re wrong and she’s as fine as she wants us to believe, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Same”, Abby sighed, “and yes, that’s a good idea. Call us in case anything happens, alright? Or should we stay too?”

“No, it’s okay”, Erin reassured her friend, smiling, “just cross your fingers that everything’s gonna be fine.”

Abby and Patty nodded, then told her to take care and sternly instructed her once more to call the moment something might seem weird; she reassured them she would, and they took their leave, Erin watching them go, then just standing there for a few moments, feeling a bit lost in the large headquarter.

Then, she figured that she might as well get some work done, reminding herself that the report of the night’s bust still had to be typed up; and that led her to the information the government had given them about said bust, and she frowned to herself as she realized that the humanoid Class IV which had been mentioned had been nowhere to be seen.

_Well, at least we took care of the wolves_ , she then thought to herself as she made her way to her office desk, booting up her laptop and moving on the kitchen to get herself a drink while the machine got ready for use, _perhaps, that Class IV will be harmless without them. If not, we’ll just have to go back there and take care of it._

She poured herself a glass of apple juice, then walked back to the desk and sat down; and for the next hour, she worked on the report diligently, writing down as many details as she could remember, and making a mental note to ask the others about their recollection, never focusing so hard though that she would have missed any noises from upstairs, eager to be alert enough despite her concentration to notice, should something be wrong with Holtzmann.

Thinking of her friend made her think back to the moment Holtzmann had gotten hurt, and she frowned to herself; she would have preferred to forget it, but she still remembered all too well how bad the engineer’s arm had looked, and as she thought back to the wounds which had remained when Holtzmann had removed the bandage, her frown only deepened, as she simply knew that something about this wasn’t quite right.

_And how sweaty and hot she was in the car,_ Erin remembered, her fingers resting on the keys now, her gaze fixed on the laptop screen, but not really seeing the words there, _the exact opposite of what people in shock feel like._

She thought back to how the blonde had convulsed, how her muscles had thrummed beneath her hands, as if they’d start snapping any moment; it hadn’t lasted long, she knew now, but it had seemed like an eternity back then, and even though Holtzmann had apparently recovered remarkably fast, Erin frowned to herself again, the feeling that something was wrong growing stronger and stronger the more she thought about what had happened after Holtzmann had been bitten by the ghost wolf.

_She could have another one of those fits right now upstairs and you might not hear,_ Erin realized all at once, and it felt as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice cold water over her, _and what if she swallows her tongue? Wait, no, not physically possible, but her tongue_ could _fall back and block her airway and Jesus Erin what are you doing overthinking this, go look and make sure she’s okay!_

She practically shot up from her chair and hurried upstairs, belatedly realizing that perhaps, it’d be wiser to move quietly, so she wouldn’t wake Holtzmann up in case the engineer was sleeping peacefully; forcing herself to slow down, Erin gave her best to not make too much noise for the rest of the way, somewhat relieved to see that the door leading from Holtzmann’s lab to the small room she often slept in when work was too interesting to go home was open, reducing the danger that the engineer would hear her open it and wake up.

Feeling absurdly like some sort of burglar, Erin snuck to the door, gingerly pushed it open and hoped that the hinges wouldn’t creak; thankfully, they didn’t, and she peered into the dark room, her eyes needing a few moments to adjust.

They finally did though, and she could see Holtzmann lying on the cot she had dragged in from God knew where; the engineer was sprawled on her back, snoring softly, thankfully not cramping up again the way she had in the car… even though her foot twitched a bit as Erin watched, and the physicist raised an eyebrow, shaking her head to herself. Not even in her sleep, Holtzmann could remain still for longer than a minute.

Relieved that her friend seemed to be fine, Erin turned and made her way back downstairs; she continued work on the report, then, when that was done, focused on the equations she’d been doing for a project Holtzmann was working on, making a point of checking on the engineer every half hour, relieved to find her fast asleep every time, and by the time she got too tired to work on and retreated to the couch in the lounge area, she almost could believe that perhaps, everything was just as fine as Holtz had claimed after all.

* * *

 

In the next morning, Erin woke with a crick in her neck and a sore back; regretting that she had slept on the couch, she sat up with a groan, somewhat relieved though when, after a few moments of being slightly disoriented, she heard the music from the second floor, and figured that Holtzmann had to be just fine, if she was up and about and playing music at eight in the morning.

She got up and stretched, grimacing at how uncomfortable her clothing felt after she had slept in it; glad that she kept fresh things to wear in her locker, she forced herself to get off the couch and stretched, grimacing again when she heard something in her spine pop quite audibly.

Erin was eager to get a shower and change into fresh clothes, but first, she wanted to make sure that Holtzmann was truly alright; and so, she made her way upstairs again, telling herself that she just had to make sure Holtzmann was fine, and that concern for a friend was the only reason for going up there before even changing into fresh clothes, certainly, there were no other, deeper feelings which prompted her to act so unreasonably (and a bit gross).

She found Holtzmann at one of her workbenches, of course, bent over one of the many projects she was working on; apparently, it was impossible for her to have just one at a time, there always had to be at least three, and sometimes, Erin wondered how she managed to not mix them up.

“Good morning, Holtz”, she greeted, not quite sure if Holtzmann had heard her; in response, the engineer put down the screwdriver, straightened up and turned to look at her, smirking her signature smirk and throwing in a wink for good measure as she wished her a good morning, too, thankfully not commenting on the fact that Erin was still wearing the same clothing as she had the previous day.

Even if she had though, Erin might not have reacted much to it though, too distracted by two little details, namely that apparently, Holtzmann had moved around more in her sleep than she was aware of, her hair even shaggier and messier than usual, barely held in check by the safety goggles she had pushed up into it – and the fact that the wounds which still had been marring her forearm the previous night were completely gone, not even a scar remaining.


	4. Chapter 4

“You can’t deny that this is not normal”, Erin said half an hour later, at the breakfast table now, with Abby and Patty thankfully there for backup, “perhaps it might have looked worse than it was yesterday, but it shouldn’t have healed so quick. Even if it just had been a scrape, it should still be visible.”

“Erin has a point”, Abby added before Holtzmann could talk back, “this might look like a good thing now, but it could mean that something is wrong. You should have that checked out, Holtzmann.”

“Have what checked out”, Holtzmann demanded to know, rolling her eyes, “what do you think will happen if I go to the hospital and tell them, hey guys, I had an ouchie, but it healed superquick, make sure I’m okay? They either will send me home, or they’ll think I’m a crazy person.”

“…well, that’s probably true”, Erin had to admit, feeling helpless now as she wasn’t quite sure what to suggest next, “but certainly you have to admit that this is strange, so…”

“I know it is”, Holtzmann sighed, running a nervous hand through her hair, giving the physicist an unhappy look, “you think I’m not aware of that? Of course it’s not normal. And I’m worried.”

The last few words came out in a quiet and stilted tone, the one Erin knew Holtzmann only used when she was highly uncomfortable; suddenly eager to comfort her, she reached over and placed her hand on the engineer’s arm, earning another unhappy look, her own expression softening as she fully realized how freaked out Holtzmann had to be.

“Maybe it was the slime”, Abby offered, in a helpless attempt to make her friend feel better, earning confused looks from both Holtzmann and Erin, which prompted her to elaborate, “you know, that ghost wolf had slime instead of saliva, maybe that healed you somehow. Did we ever have an open wound come in contact with ectoplasm before? Imagine if it could accelerate a body’s healing rate, that would be an amazing discovery!”

She more had said it to make Holtzmann feel better than out of a real belief that ectoplasm could have any sort of healing capabilities; to her relief, it worked though, Holtzmann looking much less worried at once and nodding eagerly, immediately starting to come up with schemes which would allow them to collect ectoplasm and study it.

“No need for elaborate plans”, Erin commented somewhat dryly, making the engineer look at her, and belatedly realizing that her hand was still on the blonde’s arm, her cheeks heating up as she pulled her hand back, her blush only deepening when she was sure that, for a moment, she had seen disappointment in Holtzmann’s eyes, just long enough to let her notice it, before the engineer’s usual cheerfulness returned, “you just have to wait for the next bust and then collect the slime off my coveralls. Because I am sure by now that the stuff is after me personally.”

“So I’ll just scrape it off of you then after our next bust, got it”, Holtzmann nodded, all sincere, but Erin didn’t miss the sparkle of mischief in the blonde’s eyes; and to her chagrin, she blushed again, Holtzmann winking at her as she picked up a piece of bacon from her plate and bit into it, somehow managing to make that simple act look much better and arousing than it had any right to look.

“Just take care in the next days, alright”, Erin distracted herself from how hot Holtzmann looked eating bacon by bringing the talk back to the topic they all were concerned about, “and if you, I don’t know, feel weird or something, tell us immediately.”

“I feel weird all the time”, Holtzmann pointed out, making Erin roll her eyes while Patty smirked, then got up from her seat to get herself some coffee, “but if it becomes a different kind of weird, I’ll let you guys know. Guess for now, we can just wait and see. Patty, don’t use that milk, it’s sour.”

“Oh it is?” Patty wanted to know, frowning at the carton, then raising it to her nose and sniffing, grimacing as the sour smell hit her, “then why did you put it back in the fridge if you realized it’s sour?! That’s nasty!”

“…I wasn’t quite awake enough yet to realize what I was doing”, Holtzmann replied, with a pause just long enough to let Erin notice; and even though she wasn’t quite sure, she suddenly just knew that Holtzmann had lied to them all in this very moment, her brow furrowing as she wondered what the blonde was keeping from them and why she’d lie about something so insignificant.

* * *

 

After breakfast, Holtzmann retreated to her lab up on the second floor, and even though Erin still worried about her, and still wondered why she’d lie about the milk thing, she forced herself to not follow her; instead, she sat down at her desk again, and called Abby over for her part of the report, the two of them working on it for a while – until Abby spoke up, and changed the topic somewhat bluntly and without warning, briefly taking Erin aback.

“Holtzmann lied about the milk thing”, Abby stated, pushing her glasses back up her nose as she looked from the laptop screen and at Erin, “I know her, I can tell. She’s a really bad liar.”

“I got the same feeling”, Erin confirmed, momentarily feeling bad that they’d talk about Holtzmann like this behind her back, but then figuring that it was only with the best intentions, “I’m not quite sure why she’d lie to us, but I’m pretty sure she did.”

“Me neither”, Abby sighed, clearly more bothered by this than she had let on when she had brought it up, “and it… I know that’s gonna sound dumb, but it really hurt. I don’t think Holtz ever lied to me before, you know?”

“Same”, Erin let her know, “I mean, you’ve known her way longer than I have, but… Well, she’s not very good at it, as this morning showed, so clearly, she doesn’t have much practice.”

“So what should we do about this?” Abby wanted to know, glad that Erin was agreeing with her, and that she wasn’t alone with the impression that Holtzmann had lied, “just confronting her won’t lead anywhere. You think it has something do to with that wound healing so fast?”

“I don’t know”, Erin replied with a small sigh, “maybe. That worries me, too, to be honest, it’s just not normal, and somehow, I doubt it had something to do with the ectoplasm that wolf got on her when he bit her.”

“It worries me, too”, Abby let her know, with another unhappy glance at her friend, “but for now, I guess all we can do is wait and see. She was right when she said that no hospital would take her in for that, and what would they even look for?”

“I know”, the physicist said with another sigh, “right now, there’s not much we can do, like you said. Just… keep an eye on her, and make sure she’s okay.”

Abby nodded her agreement to that, then looked towards the staircase leading up to the second floor, her dismay clearly showing through her features; eager to give her some comfort, Erin reached out to rub her arm, glad when Abby gave her a weak smile in reply, the redhead smiling back at her, neither of them able to fully push their worries about their friend aside though.

They both had looked towards the staircase, but neither of them could see the top of the stairs from their position; and so, neither of them saw Holtzmann standing there, the engineer frowning to herself, having heard every word – and not for a second wondering if this was odd, seeing how far the two had been from her when they had been speaking, at least for the moment blissfully unaware of what was happening to her.


	5. Chapter 5

For the next few days, Erin kept a close eye on Holtzmann, together with Abby and Patty; none of them noticed any drastic changes though, and Holtzmann seemed to be in just as good health as always, the only odd things Erin did notice being that the engineer’s hair apparently had somehow become permanently shaggier than before – and that she was oddly sensitive to certain scents, sneezing violently whenever Kevin used a certain cologne and whenever they had spicy food.

This struck Erin as odd, but at least, it didn’t seem to be any life-threatening change; still she kept an eye on the blonde though, always worrying that perhaps, there was more, some other drastic thing happening to their friend none of them was noticing.

If there was, Holtzmann didn’t tell them about it, even though she had reassured them that she would; and since she seemed her usual self, Erin allowed herself to calm down after a while, figuring that, even though she still didn’t know how the engineer’s wounds had healed so fast, nothing else had happened to her, and telling herself that the relief she felt about this only was so big because Holtzmann was dear as a friend to her, and certainly not as anything else.

Abby started to feel better and more relaxed about the weird situation, too, and once she had begun to relax, Patty did the same; and barely a week after Holtzmann had been bitten, things were back to perfectly normal, and even though none of them said it out loud, they decided that this had to be celebrated – and so, they went to the bar at the corner on Friday night, ending up in their usual booth, Abby and Patty sitting on one side and Erin and Holtzmann on the other.

Even though Erin kept telling herself that Holtzmann was just a friend – and that the blonde’s flirting wasn’t more than that, either, just friends ribbing each other – she had to admit that she liked sitting next to the engineer; their bare forearms touched every now and then, which made her skin tingle nicely, and sometimes, their legs would touch, too, and even though she tried to ignore it, it felt pleasant, as well.

A group of guys walked past, and apparently, at least one of them wore a cologne similar to the one Kevin had, since Holtzmann turned away from Erin and sneezed loudly; without thinking, Erin rubbed her back with one hand as she said “Gesundheit”, the engineer mumbling her thanks before she sniffed, Patty holding a pack of tissues out to her with a raised eyebrow, and earning a “Thank you” as well while Holtzmann took one of them.

“You sneeze a lot lately”, Abby observed, raising an eyebrow; Holtzmann shrugged, then mumbled something about obnoxious guys and their obnoxious cologne, taking a long gulp of her beer afterwards, Abby deciding to drop the topic of the engineer’s new sneezing habits for now, even though it made her think back to the talk she’d had with Erin, the day after Holtzmann had been bitten by the ghost wolf.

“Whoa there, slow down, Holtzy”, Patty said, gesturing at the blonde’s beer, which was half empty by now, while the rest of them hadn’t even drank a quarter of their drinks, “or you’ll have to wait until we are done too.”

“I’m thirsty”, Holtzmann shrugged, then took another sip, a smaller one this time, though; Erin shook her head at the antics of her friends, then tried to find a topic they could discuss by asking Patty if she had read any good books lately, and that soon brought up a lively talk about literature and scientific books, a talk which led to Erin flushing a lovely shade of crimson when Abby revealed that, in college, she’d had a ton of romance paperbacks.

“What, those cliché ones”, Holtzmann wanted to know, laughing, “with a buff shirtless guy holding his swooning damsel in distress in his arms?”

“No”, Erin lied, her blush intensifying, and Abby shook her head, wagging her index finger at the physicist afterwards, trying to sound strict as she spoke up, but failing miserably, interrupting herself with giggles the whole time. “Don’t lie, Erin, you know you had exactly those. And I swear those guys all looked the same. I bet they just had one stock photo of such a guy and used that for aaaaall the covers.”

“Well”, Erin replied primly, figuring that she might as well get revenge for Abby teasing her like that, “at least, I didn’t take up endless shelf space with Star Trek action figures and other paraphernalia.”

“Don’t you talk bad about Star Trek”, Abby warned her, with a strict look; Erin rolled her eyes, then let them know that she’d go to the bathroom and then get another round of drinks, Holtzmann immediately telling her that she’d go with her, and practically jumping up from her seat, the physicist unable to hold back a smile at the blonde’s eagerness.

“You know I wasn’t trying to be mean, right”, Holtzmann said as they made their way through the crowd to the washrooms, “I was just teasing.”

“Yes”, Erin reassured her, smiling at her once more, “no worries. And, sad to say, you were quite right with your description of those novels, so…”

“Guess your brain needed something trite after being brilliant at physics all day, huh”, Holtzmann commented, smirking; Erin blushed a bit at the compliment, but that didn’t even surprise her anymore, since she always reacted like this when Holtzmann complimented her, and by now, she doubted that this would ever stop.

“I guess so”, she stated, then vanished into the bathroom; Holtzmann, who just had come along to help with carrying the drinks, leaned against the wall casually and waited for her to come back, watching the people around her, barely registering that she wasn’t just analysing them using her sight – her nostrils flared, and the scents around her told her much more than they had a few days ago.

_That guy’s unhappy. That one had a bad lunch. Oh, bad cologne –_ she sneezed – _that girl has lover’s grief, poor her. Wow dude, should not have eaten that taco, that indigestion is worse than Bad Lunch Guy’s._

Perhaps, she should have wondered how she could tell all these things, just from the smells her nose picked up; the thing responsible for this new skill kept her from noticing that something was awry though, and she thought nothing of it, forgetting about it the moment Erin came out of the washroom.

“All done”, the physicist said, and Holtzmann smirked at her; Erin smiled back at her, then they made their way to the bar to get the next round of drinks, the engineer holding back the urge to roll her eyes when bad cologne guy was there, too – and when he smiled at Erin the moment the redhead stepped up to the bar, not wasting any time, but immediately sidling up to her and saying “Hi”.

“Hello”, Erin replied, a bit taken aback; and then, something about her scent changed, and Holtzmann could tell that she was more annoyed than anything else at this guy chatting her up, and immediately felt relief, not quite sure what she would have felt, had Erin shown actual interest in the man.

“I’m Brad”, the man told her, clearly not noticing that she wasn’t all too happy, or perhaps not caring, “you need a refill? Want me to buy that for you?”

“No thanks”, Erin replied at once, and his face fell, “I’m here with friends. Thank you for your interest though.”

“Aw”, Brad let out, completely ignoring Holtzmann, not that she minded much, “you sure you don’t have time for one drink?”

He stepped closer, and reached out to take hold of Erin’s arm; the physicist’s gaze darkened in response, and Holtzmann thought back to the other moments she had seen someone – usually men – touch her like this, without getting at least some sort of permission first, and she wondered how people could miss how much Erin disliked this.

“Hey”, she decided to butt in, “Brad, right? Our friends are waiting for drinks, so please, be a good man and find some other woman you can offer your pleasant company to.”

“I don’t recall asking for your opinion”, Brad coldly replied, but to Erin’s relief, at least he let go of her arm; the relief didn’t last long though, as she saw Holtzmann’s eyes narrow, and she saw something flash in them, something wild and angry, and if she hadn’t known better, she could have sworn that, just for a second, the engineer’s eyes were yellow instead of their usual blue.

And then, Holtzmann growled.

It was a literal growl, Erin was sure, a threatening rumble which originated somewhere deep in Holtzmann’s chest and emerged between her slightly grit teeth; it wasn’t a sound any human should be capable of, and yet she had heard it, and Brad had, too, looking startled and even taking a step back.

Feeling just as startled as the man looked, all Erin could do was stare when Holtzmann growled _again_ and moved after him, the way she did so oddly reminding Erin of predators she had seen in nature documentaries; that wild and angry thing flashed in the blonde’s eyes once more, without the yellow this time, and a second later, Erin’s blood ran cold as Holtzmann’s lips pulled back further from her teeth and her canines looked much longer and pointier than they should, an audible whimper from Brad telling her that he had noticed this, as well.

“Holtz!” Erin snapped, realizing that something was very wrong and that this could get very bad quickly if she didn’t stop it somehow; without thinking, she grabbed Holtzmann’s forearm, feeling how tense the muscle there was, it felt like gripping a rock, but it seemed to help, Holtzmann staring at the man for another second – before her gaze moved to Erin, and softened visibly, the physicist feeling her relax moments later.

From the corner of her eye, Erin saw Brad retreat hastily, but didn’t dare to look after him, not sure that breaking eye contact with Holtzmann was a good idea; the blonde paid the man no mind though, but was fully focused on her, and all the anger was gone from her gaze.

“…let’s get the drinks”, Erin said after a moment, figuring that this wasn’t a good place to talk about what had happened; Holtzmann nodded, and when she smiled at the redhead, her teeth looked perfectly normal again, and for a moment, Erin wondered if she had imagined the lengthened pointy canines… but deep inside, she knew that she hadn’t, just like she hadn’t imagined the growls and the flash of yellow in Holtzmann’s eyes, and her mind ran wild as she tried to figure out what this might mean.


	6. Chapter 6

“We need to talk”, Erin said a few hours later, back at the headquarter; Abby and Patty had headed home, and she was somewhat glad about this, not quite sure yet if she wanted to discuss what had happened in front of them, figuring that it’d be smarter to speak to Holtzmann in private first.

“…I guess so”, Holtzmann replied after a moment; whatever was happening to her had suppressed the realization that something was wrong when it just had been the scent thing, but after the incident at the bar, she couldn’t deny anymore that something was going on with her, and it frightened her, an emotion which clearly showed through her voice and face when she looked up at Erin from her seat on the couch.

“Erin”, she brought out, and the tremble in her voice made the physicist’s heart clench up, “something’s wrong. But I swear I didn’t know until today, I would have told you, all of you, I didn’t…”

“I know”, Erin hastily reassured her, realizing how upset the blonde sounded and eager to calm her down, sitting down next to her and, after a moment of hesitation, putting one arm around her shoulders, worried again as Holtzmann was yet again so tense that she might as well have been hugging a stone pillar, “I know, it’s okay. We’ll figure out what is going on… What happened in that bar? Can you explain it to me?”

“Not really”, Holtzmann mumbled, staring at her feet now, but at least, Erin could feel her relax a bit, “I just… he grabbed you, and I saw the look on your face and I got so angry. And, as weird as that has to sound, the growl thing just kinda… seemed like a normal thing to do. I know it’s not, but that’s how it was, and I don’t know what’s happening to me…”

“Shhht”, Erin tried once more to calm her down, rubbing her back soothingly, even though that became a bit difficult when she realized that she was alone with Holtzmann, a Holtzmann who had growled at a man mere hours ago and had looked as if she might pounce him any moment, and she couldn’t stop the flash of fear this thought brought up, even though she knew Holtzmann would never hurt her… and suddenly, the engineer tensed up even further, then looked at her, her voice small and shaking when she spoke up again. “You’re afraid of me.”

“No”, Erin gave back at once, shaking her head for emphasis, “I’m not afraid of you, Holtz, I know you’d never… do anything to me, no matter what this is.”

“I can tell you were afraid of me”, Holtzmann mumbled, her gaze dropping away from her face and back to her feet, “cause I smelled it. As crazy as this sounds. It’s gone again now so I believe you but… you were afraid. For a moment.”

“I know you’d never harm me”, Erin repeated, not denying that for a moment, she had been afraid, figuring that it wouldn’t do much good anyway, especially not if Holtzmann had smelled it – and _that_ was an interesting bit of information, she realized a bit belatedly, the few details she knew clicking in her mind and forming a rather frightening picture.

“Holtz”, she said slowly, “I have a vague idea but… Let’s collect the facts we know so far. Your sense of smell has increased quite drastically, if you can actually smell my emotions. You growled at that guy, and, honestly, that wasn’t a sound I ever expected to hear from a human, not even from you, and I’m pretty sure your eyes were yellow for a second when you did so, and your teeth looked… different, too.”

“I can smell more than that, you know”, Holtzmann mumbled, thinking back to the minutes she had waited for Erin to come back from the washroom, “that’s how I knew the milk was sour when Patty wanted to use it. And when I waited for you at the bar, I could tell so much about the people walking past, just from their scent, how they felt, what they ate… and the rest… yeah. Not sure about the eye thing, but my teeth felt weird for a moment there.”

“Alright”, Erin replied, taking in a deep breath, knowing that what she was about to say next would sound completely crazy – but, on the other hand, she reasoned, they were Ghostbusters, so they should be open minded about other areas of the supernatural, “this is going to sound insane but… Holtz, I think you might be a werewolf.”

* * *

 

“What.” Holtzmann replied flatly, looking at the physicist in disbelief, “are you joking? You’re joking, right. A _werewolf_?”

“Or something close to that”, Erin replied, completely serious, Holtzmann noted, and she wondered briefly if Erin’s scent would change, should she lie, then she pushed that thought out of her mind, “it all adds up. You were bitten by this ghost wolf, that wound healed way faster than it should have, and now, you display these… symptoms. You don’t feel… wolfish, do you?”

“I don’t know”, Holtzmann replied, frowning, “I… I don’t feel different right now. I did at the bar, when that guy was such a nuisance, but right now, I just feel like Holtzmann. Except for the better sense of smell thing. God, there’s so many scents in here, I’m getting a headache.”

Without thinking, Erin shifted slightly on the couch, changing her position so that she could place her index and middle fingers against Holtzmann’s temples; the engineer gave her a brief, surprised look, didn’t protest though, letting out a content hum instead when the redhead began massaging, with careful, slow circular motions.

“Maybe it’ll go away again”, the physicist mumbled, keeping her voice low, not sure if Holtzmann’s hearing had gotten better, too, “or… if not… maybe you’ll get used to it?”

Holtzmann sighed, and shrugged, but relaxed noticeably at how Erin kept massaging her temples; for a while, there was silence, then the engineer spoke up again, sounding thoughtful now.

“Alright, let’s assume you’re right”, she mumbled, “and I am… some sort of werewolf. Shouldn’t I be able to, you know, change? Into some sort of wolf beastie?”

“I don’t know”, Erin replied, with a small shrug, “we are far from knowing all there is to know about ghosts, and that would be a completely different league. But if you can do it? That would be so interesting to study, how does it work, does it affect the body?”

“Whoa, slow down there”, Holtzmann gave back, sounding a bit amused now, “don’t make me your newest project.”

“Sorry”, the physicist said sheepishly, blushing a bit, realizing that she had been a bit too enthusiastic there for a moment, “my inner science dork took over there for a moment. No offense.”

“I like your inner science dork”, Holtzmann told her, waving her words aside with a dismissive gesture of her hand, “but maybe we should try to find out if I can do that. Like I said, I don’t feel very werewolfy, I just feel like Holtzmann.”

“Perhaps it, whatever it is, only has an effect when you’re angry”, Erin mused, frowning to herself, “and honestly, I don’t want to piss you off just to find out, but we should keep that option in mind, the next time we go on a bust.”

“Or out for drinks”, Holtzmann replied, rolling her eyes, then smiled again though as she went on, “and thanks for not wanting to piss me off, but I doubt you could if you tried, hot stuff, I like you too much to ever get pissed at you.”

“Apparently”, Erin gave back, aiming for a dry tone, even though she could feel her cheeks heat up, cursing herself for her tendency to blush, “whatever is going on has not the slightest influence on your flirting.”

“Course not”, the engineer shot back, not missing a beat, “I imagine I’d have to be on my deathbed to stop flirting with you. Or possibly dead.”

“No jokes about dying”, the physicist strictly told her, deciding to ignore the specification that Holtzmann wouldn’t stop flirting _with her_ anytime soon, and not allowing to think herself about the fact that her first assumption – _Holtzmann flirts with everyone_ – had turned out to be wrong, and had been corrected to _Holtzmann only flirts with me_ , not quite ready to face what this made her feel and how said feelings might change their friendship.

“We have to tell Abby and Patty”, she added after pondering these things for a moment, “so they’ll know what’s going on in case something… happens again.”

Holtzmann didn’t look all too happy about this, but nodded, knowing that Erin was right; seeing her discomfort, the physicist’s gaze softened, and she took tender hold of the engineer’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze, relieved when a small smile curled Holtzmann’s lips in response.

“It’s going to be okay”, Erin reassured her, even though she knew she might be making a promise she couldn’t keep with those words; and Holtzmann had to know that, too, but she managed a smile and a nod, telling herself that at least, she didn’t feel sick, quite far from it actually, and that surely everything would turn out fine in the end.


	7. Chapter 7

“Erin thinks I might be some sort of werewolf now, and I think she’s right.” Erin winced at how bluntly Holtzmann put it, she would have beaten around the bush a bit at first, just to prepare Abby and Patty for what was coming; clearly, Holtzmann had had other ideas though, and just had put the cards on the table right after the two had been told that a talk was necessary, both women staring at her now, gobsmacked into silence.

“A what now”, Patty finally answered, still looking as if she’d been whacked over the head with a mallet, and the look on her face could have been amusing, had the circumstances been different; Holtzmann shrugged, feeling uncomfortable at the way the two stared at her, not for the first time wondering if this might change anything about the friendship she had with these two.

Erin had reacted surprisingly calm about the whole thing, she thought to herself, and that was good, because Erin meant so much to her, way more than the physicist probably was aware of; from the way Abby and Patty looked at her now though, the two clearly had trouble with the concept of werewolf Holtzmann, and she felt like some sort of freak at the way her friends were staring at her.

And that thought lead her down another, very unpleasant path – unable to stop the train of thought, she found herself wondering if she actually still counted as human, or if she was some sort of monstrosity now, and perhaps, would turn out to be a danger to her friends, her stomach clenching up painfully as she realized how little she knew about what was happening to her.

Next to her, Erin gave her a concerned glance, clearly picking up on some of the things running through her mind; neither Patty, nor Abby seemed to notice how the redhead reached out and grasped Holtzmann’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze when the engineer looked at her, then focused on the other two again, her voice firm, but kind when she was the one to answer Patty’s half-asked question.

“A werewolf”, she confirmed, “it all adds up. You weren’t close enough to notice anything of it at the bar, but some guy was being a nuisance, and Holtzmann decided to take care of him by growling at him. Actually growling, you should have heard it.”

She told them about the rest, as well, about the flash of yellow in the engineer’s eyes and the way her canines had looked much longer and pointier than they should have; Patty and Abby listened in fascination, and even though they both still appeared dumbstruck and a bit uneasy by the time Erin finished, Abby nodded thoughtfully once the physicist had finished, looking at Holtzmann curiously.

“Well, if ghosts are real, then I imagine other… myths might be, too”, she pointed out, earning a brief nod from Erin while Holtzmann just shrugged, not quite sure what to expect, “even though it wouldn’t be a myth anymore if it’s actually true. Do you feel… different?”

“No”, Holtzmann replied at once, managing a weak smile when Erin squeezed her hand again, “not really. I was quite pissed when I did the growl thing at the guy, so maybe it’s connected to how angry I am, I don’t know. We don’t know anything about that, actually.”

“Well, I guess it is fortunate then that this happened to someone who has access to a bunch of brilliant brains and equipment”, Patty commented, “cause if anyone can find out anything about this, it’s these smarties here.”

“You’re brilliant, too, Patty”, Holtzmann pointed out in response, earning a bright smile from her friend, “come on, you know more about New York than all of us combined. But please” – she interrupted herself with a sneeze, a loud one which made Abby jump while Erin grimaced a bit – “please, for the love of salty Pringles, please don’t wear that perfume again. It makes me sneeze.”

She sneezed again as if to prove her point, and Erin mumbled “Gesundheit”; Holtzmann gave her a brief thankful look while Patty looked appalled, then pointed out that she wore this certain perfume quite often and that it never had bothered Holtzmann so far.

“Yeah, well”, the blonde replied in a deadpan tone, “I wasn’t some sort of werewolf before. If I am. Whatever it is, it’s made my sense of smell way better.”

“The milk!” Abby cried in response, making them both jump, while Patty just looked on in confusion, “that’s how you knew it had gone bad, you didn’t notice before and put it back in the fridge, you smelled it when Patty took it out!”

“Pretty much”, Holtzmann admitted, making Erin smile at her; she smiled back, then Abby made her look at her again, by reaching over and placing one hand on her arm, briefly stilling the concerns that Abby and Patty might see her as some sort of creepy freak now.

“We’ll figure this out”, Abby promised her, holding her gaze, “what is happening to you and what it means. It’s going to be okay.”

Grateful for the quiet acceptance and reassurance she could see in Abby’s eyes, Holtzmann smiled and nodded; and then, Erin squeezed her hand again, and gave her a reassuring look, too, and suddenly, she was sure that they were right, and that somehow, even though she still didn’t quite know what exactly was happening to her, everything would be fine in the end.

* * *

 

Being her scientist self, Erin started a notebook to collect all the data about what was happening to Holtzmann; she neatly labelled it with “WW JH”, explaining “Werewolf Jillian Holtzmann” at the blonde’s questioning look, then adding that she didn’t want to write it out, in case someone from the government or a client came by and happened to see it.

“Yeah, agreed”, Holtzmann nodded to that, tinkering with one of her projects, glad that, whatever was going on with her, apparently had no effect on her engineering skills, “the last thing we need to happen is that the government mooks find out. Who knows what sort of ideas they’ll get.”

“You know”, Erin replied, “it’s too bad we don’t have a recording of your brain waves from before you got bitten by that ghost wolf, perhaps, they are different now. But maybe we can get an electrocardiogram done, see if your heart is different now.”

“Only if we can do that here”, Holtzmann gave back at once, “I’m not going to a regular hospital with that, what if it’s weird then and they, I dunno, call the government mooks? And hey, if you want to know my heartrate, you can put your hand on my chest anytime.”

Erin just raised an eyebrow in response to that, but blushed prettily again, Holtzmann noticed – and her scent changed, too, just enough to let the engineer notice, a hint of arousal in the physicist’s smell now, forcing the blonde to use quite a bit of willpower to keep a straight face.

This got quite difficult though when, without warning, Erin leaned forward; she didn’t put her hand on Holtzmann’s chest, but she grasped her hand and placed two fingers against her wrist, frowning after she had located the engineer’s pulse, immediately noticing that it was quite a bit faster than the pulse of an average person.

Still, she did it properly, counting the beats as she kept her eye on her watch, for a full minute; still frowning, she then let go of Holtzmann’s wrist and looked at her again, her tone a mixture of amazement and slight concern when she spoke up again. “Your pulse is fast, Holtz. _Way_ fast. I’d say twice as high as it should be. Do you feel okay?”

“Fine”, Holtzmann replied, frowning as well when she placed two fingers against her wrist and realized that Erin was right, her heart beating much faster than it had any right to, considering she hadn’t done anything even remotely physically taxing since breakfast, “must be another side effect. You don’t happen to know the average heart rate of a wolf, right?”

Erin shook her head, but pulled her phone from her pocket to check; before she could even open the web browser though, Abby called out to them from the ground floor, telling them that they had been called another bust and that they could continue their research on “wolfy Holtzy” later on.

“You know”, Holtzmann commented as she got up from her seat, Erin tucking her phone back in her pocket before she did the same, “I like how we are all already quite sure that it’s a wolf thing. What if I’m a werehamster?”

“Hamsters don’t growl”, Erin pointed out, “you would have squeaked at the guy then. With puffy cheeks, perhaps.”

Holtzmann chuckled at that, and the physicist smiled at her – before they both got moving and hurried downstairs, before Abby would feel the need to yell for them again, the four of them getting into Ecto-1 not even five minutes later, speeding to the location of their next bust.


	8. Chapter 8

The bust happened at a bank, and it was a fairly young ghost, too, compared to the ones they had faced before; he apparently had been a bank robber who’d been shot dead by the police, wearing quite modern clothing – and wielding a gun as ghostly as he himself was, the ectoplasm bullets he fired at the Ghostbusters real enough to tear holes into the walls and tables when they all ducked for cover.

“This is what you get for shootin’ people dead instead of imprisoning them”, Patty commented, pulling her head between her shoulders when the ghost fired again; thankfully, his aim didn’t seem to be all too good, and he didn’t hit any of them, “angry ghosts who shoot at innocent random people!”

“Not sure we count as random”, Erin pointed out in reply, “we did come here to get rid of him. Now how do we do this? I got the feeling that his ectoplasm gun won’t have a limited supply of ammunition, like a regular gun would have.”

“You might be right about that”, Holtzmann agreed, and then a bullet hit the wall right next to her head; and just like in the bar, she growled, Abby and Patty hearing it this time, too, exchanging a startled look, neither of them pointing it out though, and the engineer didn’t seem as if she’d been aware of the noise she’d made.

If there had been yellow in her eyes again, her position kept the others from seeing it; Erin tried to get a good look at her teeth, but to her dismay, Holtzmann didn’t show them this time, even though Erin did note that all at once, her hair appeared to look even shaggier than it had when they had left the HQ.

She filed that mental image away for later, scolding herself for getting distracted when a trigger-happy ghost was on the lose; Holtzmann was asking if anyone had a proton grenade, looking unhappy when no one did, all of them having been used up during the last bust, and with all the things going on, she simply hadn’t had the time to make new ones.

“Drat”, Holtzmann grumbled, peering over the counter she used for cover, and quickly pulling her head back when the ghost fired at her in response, thankful that the bullet hadn’t hit her, “remind to make more of those once we are back at the fire station. We need to find another way to take care of this angry young man then…”

“Don’t do anything reckless”, Erin warned her, holding back the urge to look what the ghost was doing, not quite sure if she’d be able to duck back down as fast as the engineer had – and so, she only heard the ghost’s angered roar, the apparition clearly not all too happy with what Holtzmann had said, then she heard Abby cry out “Erin, look out!” but the warning had come too late, way too late – as she learned seconds later, when the ghost crashed into the overturned desk she was using as cover, slamming it backwards and her along with it, until she ended up squished between the wall and the desk, the air knocked out of her.

“Erin!” Abby cried, and Erin could hear the fear in her voice; she wanted to call out to her that she was okay, but couldn’t get in enough breath to do so, the world blurring in front of her eyes for a few dreadful seconds, something warm and wet trickling down her leg where a sharp edge of the desk had torn the skin open.

The growl Holtzmann let out this time, at seeing her hurt, made the one Erin had witnessed at the bar sound like a puppy’s first tries at growling.

It was loud enough to almost be a roar, and Erin heard Patty squawk, startled at the unexpected noise; then she heard Abby yelp “Oh my God!”, and a second later, a proton stream lit up the room as Holtzmann fired, the ghost not standing a chance as the engineer blasted him with both of her handguns at once.

He tried to shoot back, but the combined power of the two streams was too much to even let him bring up his arm; he disintegrated before he could do more than let out a shriek of pain and anger, the low growls Holtzmann still was letting out the only sound once the bits of ectoplasm the ghost had left behind had noisily spattered to the floor.

Groaning in pain, Erin struggled to her feet, trying not to put too much weight on her right leg, even though the flow of blood was already lessening, the gash, to her relief, not all too deep; she figured that she’d have a bunch of bruises in the next morning, but at least, it didn’t feel as if anything had been broken, and the blurriness had vanished from her sight, as well, convincing her that she was mostly okay.

“Um”, she heard Abby let out somewhere to her left, “Holtz… Holtz, it’s okay, you took care of him… um, think you can calm down again…?”

The engineer only let out another growl in response, and Erin turned to look at her; her breath got caught in her throat, and she swallowed heavily, oddly reminded of the moment she had seen the ghost of Gertrude Aldridge and had experienced the thrilling difference between theory and practice.

She had theorized that Holtzmann was some sort of werewolf now, but now that she saw it with her own two eyes, it was another thing entirely, and her heart sped up as she found herself unable to look away.

Holtzmann’s hair had reached new levels of shagginess, to her amazement, curling up- and backwards, oddly reminding her of a mane; the hair wasn’t the most fascinating thing though, Erin just glancing at it for a second before her gaze moved on.

The yellow had returned to Holtzmann’s eyes, and not just a flash this time, but having taken over; the hair from her head had spread down her cheeks and jawline to her neck, her canines had lengthened to the point that they were peeking out beneath her lip, and the rest of her teeth looked decidedly longer and pointier, too, looking much more like wolf than human.

Still Erin kept looking, letting her gaze move further down, to the hands still holding the pistols; there was more hair there now, too, and what had been perfectly clipped and filed fingernails five minutes ago now looked more like the claws of a wild animal, and Erin found herself crazily wondering if the same had happened to the engineer’s toenails and how close she was to destroying her shoes.

“Holtzmann”, she said, working hard to keep the tremble out of her voice, remembering well how Holtzmann had smelled her fear not too long ago, and how upset she had been, “it’s okay. I’m okay. You, um, I think you should try to calm back down…”

She took another step closer, and Holtzmann’s gaze dropped to her leg; she growled again, and Erin stopped, suddenly not sure if the growling was in reaction to the fact that she was injured – or because of the smell of her blood, the physicist realizing too late that this might make the blonde only more aggressive.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Abby and Patty move, so they’d be by her side; then, Holtzmann stopped growling and, to Erin’s relief, lowered the proton guns, still looking tightly strung though, as if she was ready to pounce something – or someone – any moment.

“It’s okay”, Erin said again, not sure if she should try to cover the wound or if that would only direct the engineer’s attention towards it and make her angrier, “it’s not bad, I’m okay. Calm down, please? For me?”

Holtzmann growled again in response, softer this time, and it made Erin wonder if she actually was incapable of speech when in this state; feeling daring again, the redhead took another step closer, ignoring the mumbled warnings of Abby and Patty, making sure to hold the engineer’s gaze now, feeling a bit better about the whole situation when the yellow slowly faded and the familiar blue returned.

“Holtz”, she said again, just to be on the safe side; and just then, Holtzmann’s eyes went fully back to normal – and then rolled back in her head and she collapsed, the last thing she heard before she blacked out being Erin crying out her name.


	9. Chapter 9

“…mann! Holtzmann! Wake up, please!” Erin sounded frantic, and Holtzmann could smell her fear again, but it was a different fear this time – this time, she wasn’t afraid of her, but _for_ her, and even though she felt tired and drained, she forced herself to open her eyes, not wanting Erin to be afraid any longer.

“Oh thank God she’s waking up”, she heard Patty say, but couldn’t see her; belatedly, she realized why, and felt quite overjoyed all at once – her upper body laid in Erin’s lap, and the physicist was looking down at her, effectively blocking everything else from view with her face. And what a beautiful face it was, Holtzmann thought to herself, still somewhat dazed.

“Holtz”, Erin said again, as if to make sure that she truly was awake and aware, “Holtz? Are you okay?”

“Fine”, she croaked, part of her noticing that her jaw felt a bit strange, not quite hurting, but as if she had strained it somehow, “I really blacked out there for a moment, didn’t I.”

“That you did”, Erin confirmed, unable to hide her relief at seeing the engineer awake and aware, “are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah”, Holtzmann mumbled, and even though she didn’t quite want to get off Erin’s lap, she figured that doing so would be a good way to prove that she indeed was fine; and so, she slowly sat up, getting a look at Abby and Patty as she did so, to her relief finding them looking at her with concern, but without any fear.

“Here”, Abby was the first of the two to speak up, handing her a bottle of water, “you might need that. How’s your jaw?”

“Um, fine”, Holtzmann gave back, not quite sure what to think of this, her free hand coming up to rub over her face, a bit of relief coming up again when all the excess hair appeared to be gone, “um… okay so, how bad was it?”

“You got quite hairy there for a while”, Patty was the one to answer that, while Erin simply put one hand on her back, in a gesture of comfort and reassurance, “but you’re all back to normal now, so I guess that is a good thing?”

“I guess”, Holtzmann sighed, taking a sip of the water before she went on, “and, um, sorry? Looks like I’m not allowed to get pissed anymore, unless you guys don’t mind the whole going hairy thing.”

“It’s alright”, Erin reassured her, giving her back a few brief pats and making her smile wryly at her, “it did help to take the ghost down fairly quickly so… that was a good thing.”

_And it is quite flattering that you’d go so pissed at that ghost harming me that your wolf takes over, or however it works,_ she added, not saying this out loud though; clearly, Holtzmann had noticed _something_ though, since she gave her an odd look, didn’t make a comment though, either.

“So I guess the werewolf thing is pretty much confirmed, huh”, she said instead, with an uneasy glance at the others, glad when none of them seemed too freaked, Erin still having her hand on her back and giving her a few more pats, the engineer belatedly realizing the reason why she had gotten so angry in the first place, glancing at the physicist’s leg, and being given an answer before she had to ask.

“It’s fine”, Erin let her know, pulling her hand back at last, to the blonde’s dismay, “it already stopped bleeding. Must have looked worse than it was.”

Holtzmann nodded, relieved that her friend hadn’t gotten hurt worse; Erin gave her another smile, then asked if they were ready to get back to HQ then, earning nods from the other three – but as they got moving, Holtzmann didn’t miss how Abby and Patty briefly glanced at her, and the look they then exchanged, her heart sinking as she realized that perhaps, her friends weren’t taking this as easy as she at first had thought.

* * *

 

Thanks to Holtzmann having the most experience with getting injured, an unpleasant side effect of her not always harmless work in the lab and her recklessness in general, she was the one who ended up helping Erin with taking care of her wound; she worried briefly that the smell of blood and the sight of the injury might bring the beast within her out again, but apparently, what had happened in the bank had tired it out, and it remained quiet, even when Erin took off her pants and she got a good look at the wound.

“You were lucky”, the engineer murmured as she poured disinfectant onto a clean piece of cloth, “that could have ended much worse.”

“I know”, Erin replied, then grit her teeth as Holtzmann lowered the cloth and began cleaning the injury, the disinfectant burning badly enough to bring tears to her eyes, forcing her to fall silent, Holtzmann giving her an apologetic look, but both of them knowing that it had to be done.

“Sorry”, the blonde apologized verbally, as well, keeping her gaze fixed on the wound, from the corner of her eye seeing Erin clench her fists until her knuckles were stark white, “I’m doing this as fast as I can but…”

“It’s okay”, Erin brought out between grit teeth, wincing in pain afterwards; Holtzmann gave her another brief look, then focused on the wound again, cleaning it as fast as she could, but still thoroughly, wondering if her relief was bigger than Erin’s when she got done – Erin was in pain, and she could _smell_ said pain, and in combination with the scent of blood, the odour made her head spin and her stomach turn.

“Abby and Patty are freaked out”, she mumbled as she tossed the used and bloodied cloth into the trashcan, “they tried not to let it show, but I can tell. But you are not.”

“They just might need some time to adjust”, Erin gave back, watching how Holtzmann covered the wound and lifting her leg a bit so the blonde could wrap a bandage around it, “you have to admit, it is kind of a big thing. Doesn’t happen every day that a close friend of yours starts growling and grows extra hair.”

“Well, yeah”, the engineer had to admit, now looking up at her again, “but still, you’re not freaked out. Why not?”

“I… don’t know?” Erin replied, not quite sure what to reply, “I just… am not? I mean… what is happening to you isn’t your fault, and this must be hard enough for you as it is, I imagine it’s quite scary, so…”

“It is”, Holtzmann admitted, finishing with the bandage, but keeping her gaze fixed on it now, “and… I don’t know, I’m kinda worried, I mean… you guys are my friends, my family, so…”

“We are”, Erin confirmed, moving one hand to the blonde’s shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze, “and I’m sure Abby and Patty will get used to it. And who knows, it might have advantages to have a werewolf on the team, one never knows.”

At this, Holtzmann smiled slightly, exactly what Erin had been aiming for; she smiled back at her, then pulled her hand back – to the engineer’s slight dismay – and earned a brief nod by asking if the first aid was done.

“Ow”, she mumbled to herself as she came to her feet, and the scent of pain increased, forcing Holtzmann to breathe as flatly as possible, so she wouldn’t inhale too much of it, “wow, I’m going to feel this in every single bone tomorrow. Stupid ghost.”

“Come on, I’ll help you to your room”, Holtzmann offered, earning a brief nod from the physicist; her scent was still different, thanks to the pain, but Holtzmann told herself that she could ignore this as she wrapped one arm around Erin’s waist and helped her to her feet, the redhead putting her arm across the blonde’s shoulders for extra support.

“Thanks”, Erin smiled at her as they made their way to her room together; Holtzmann told her not to mention it, then asked her if she needed anything, something to drink or to eat, making Erin shake her head.

“Just rest”, she then mumbled, wincing again as she laid down, “but thanks. And… don’t be worried, alright, things with Abby and Patty are gonna be fine. Alright?”

Holtzmann managed a slight smile as she nodded; Erin smiled back at her, then allowed herself to relax as the engineer left the room and gently closed the door behind herself, thinking about what had happened during the bust, replaying the scenes of Holtzmann growling and snarling over and over in her mind’s eye until she finally drifted off into sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

During the next few days, Holtzmann, to the relief of Abby and Patty, was her usual self whenever she was around them; they both knew that the werewolf thing hadn’t just vanished over night, but it didn’t seem to influence the engineer much during their day to day routine.

The only indications that something had changed about Holtzmann was her hair, which was quite a bit shaggier constantly now than it had been before she’d been bitten; and her appetite for meat of all kinds had increased drastically, no matter if it was bacon, sausages, or steak so rare that Patty almost expected it to moo every time the blonde stabbed it with her fork.

These were changes the two women could handle though, to Holtzmann’s quite well-hidden relief; Abby wasn’t quite sure how she might react, should her friend go hairy and growly again, but she gave her best to not let Holtzmann notice anything of these worries, telling herself that what had happened to her wasn’t her fault and that now, there was nothing they could do about it anyway, and that it would be best to simply accept it.

The only one who didn’t seem to have any kind of problem with it anymore – except for Kevin, who simply didn’t realize what was going on – was Erin; and so, it was Erin whom Holtzmann approached eight days after the bust in the bank when she realized that _something_ was going on, feeling even more fidgety than usual since getting up that day and as if she could eat a whole horse, possibly raw.

“I wish we knew more about this”, Erin sighed after Holtzmann had asked her to join her in the lab, claiming that she had to show her something and only revealing the true reason for calling her up there once they were alone, “but, sadly, there’s even less material about this than about ghosts. Believe me, I know, I tried to research as much as I could, but all I found were questionable fantasy novels and strange TV shows.”

“Figures”, Holtzmann grumbled, running a nervous hand through her hair, “well, perhaps we might be able to add scientific stuff to this soon, because it seems to get worse and worse. I feel as if I could run around the block a dozen times and not get tired.”

She realized that she was bouncing her leg nervously and tried to stop; it worked, for about a minute, then she couldn’t help herself, but just had to start again, Erin giving her a concerned look – before her eyes widened and she practically jumped up from her seat, startling Holtzmann enough to make her flinch back.

“Sorry”, Erin apologized, having noticed the alarmed reaction, “but… I just had a thought. Where is my calendar?”

“In your desk, probably”, Holtzmann pointed out, “here, use the one on my phone…?”

“That won’t work”, the physicist mumbled, “I’ll be right back.”

Confused, Holtzmann watched how Erin rushed back downstairs; she wasn’t gone for long though, coming back not even two minutes later, proudly holding up her calendar, sitting down next to the engineer again and quickly flipping through it, brow furrowed in concentration.

“Ha!” she then let out, making Holtzmann jump again, the engineer noting, almost subconsciously, that the physicist’s scent changed to something happy and proud, “knew it. I think I know what’s happening, Holtz.”

“Yeah?” Holtzmann gave back, figuring that it couldn’t be something all too bad if Erin sounded and smelled like that; Erin nodded, then turned the calendar so the blonde could take a closer look at it, speaking up before the engineer had the chance to ask what she actually was supposed to look at.

“Look”, Erin pointed to the small symbols printed next to each day, making Holtzmann frown as she started to realize what the redhead was talking about, not quite sure what to think of this, “tonight, it’s a full moon.”

* * *

 

During the rest of the day, Holtzmann became more and more restless, soon giving up on getting any work done in her lab and pacing up and down there instead; and when that didn’t help anymore, she started doing push-ups and crunches, in a helpless attempt to get rid of the excess energy.

By the time the sun started to set, she felt like she could run for days and not get tired, even though she had been doing all sorts of gymnastics half the day; and so, when Erin came upstairs to check on her, the physicist found her doing pull-ups on a metal pipe she had wedged into the doorframe, the redhead stopping dead in her tracks, her mouth suddenly dry as she watched.

She had known that Holtzmann was in good shape – lugging around heavy equipment and materials obviously did pay off – but she hadn’t been aware that it was _that_ good; the small part of her mind which still worked rationally wondered if the blonde’s strength had been enhanced by what had happened to her, but most of her focus was on the sight of Holtzmann pulling herself up yet again, the muscles moving in her arms as she did so, the way her shirt had ridden up and exposed just enough of her stomach to let Erin see that her abs were as well-defined as her arms.

The smell of her arousal hit Holtzmann like a ton of bricks, and she nearly let go of her impromptu pull-up bar; somehow, she managed to keep herself from ungracefully flopping down to the floor, lowering herself slowly instead, her nostrils flaring as she stared at Erin, the physicist flushing under her scrutinizing look.

“Um”, she brought out, realized how squeaky she sounded and tried again, “I just wanted to tell you that Abby and Patty went home for today. If you don’t mind, I’ll stay, just to make sure you’ll be fine, clearly, the full moon has an effect on you and you better not be alone, just in case something happens…”

She realized that she was babbling and forced herself to shut up, feeling her cheeks heat up even further and cursing herself for her tendency to blush; and it only got worse when Holtzmann, without saying a word, approached her, her steps oddly predatory, her nostrils flaring again as she moved right into Erin’s personal space, practically getting into her face.

If it had been anyone else, Erin might have taken a step back; she found herself unable to do so with Holtzmann though, strangely held in place by the way the engineer was looking at her, swallowing heavily as she held the smaller woman’s gaze.

“Holtz”, she started, shakily, then realized she had no idea what she wanted to say; she did notice Holtzmann’s gaze drop down to her lips though, just for a second, but long enough to let her pick up on it, and her heart skipped an excited beat as she found herself wondering if Holtzmann would kiss her any moment now.

She swallowed heavily again, realizing that she was ready to be kissed, as ready as she would ever be; and just when she thought that it would happen now, that Holtzmann would kiss her any second, the engineer suddenly froze.

“Holtz?” Erin brought out, confused, not sure what was happening; her confusion quickly turned to alarm when Holtzmann let out an odd sounding groan in reply, a strange mixture of her normal voice and the growling they all had witnessed by now.

“Erin”, the engineer brought out, sweat starting to form on her brow, Erin noticing at the same instant that it had gotten dark outside by now, “Erin, I…”

Her words ended in a drawn-out groan, and Erin’s alarm only grew when she doubled over, clutching at her mid-section as if she was having a stomach cramp – before her knees buckled and she slumped down onto all fours, groaning as a tremble ran through her body.

Highly concerned now, Erin moved to kneel down next to her, placing a hand on her back; impossibly, her concern grew even further when she felt how hot Holtzmann’s skin was even through the fabric of the engineer’s shirt – and then, she jerked her hand back when she felt the muscle move oddly beneath her palm, in a way she was quite certain human muscle shouldn’t move.

_Well, we’re not sure anymore that Holtzmann is human, are we,_ Erin realized, while Holtzmann groaned again – and then, the groan changed into a low, rumbling growl, and Erin heard a strange whispering noise, realizing a bit belatedly that this was caused by the extra hair coming back, her eyes widening as all she could do was stare, and watch helplessly how her friend _changed,_ her heart picking up speed again as she realized that she might be in more danger than she originally had thought.


	11. Chapter 11

It was a painful process, Erin could tell simply from watching; Holtzmann kept letting out low growls, the physicist unable to hold back a flash of fear at how her body shifted, muscles bulking up until she could hear the blonde’s clothing rip, hair – _fur_ – showing through the tears in her shirt and pants.

Part of Erin knew that it might be smarter to run, that she didn’t know how much of Holtzmann would still actually be there once this strange change was complete; she found herself unable to leave though, darkly fascinated by the process, her eyes growing wide again as the changes continued.

Even Holtzmann’s face was changing, Erin realized as she watched, her ears somehow shifting higher up on her head, becoming pointy and hairy; her nose and mouth seemed to melt together, then elongate as well, turning from perfectly human features to something decidedly more wolfish, her teeth growing sharper and pointier, too, the growls she kept letting out lowering in pitch, the claws her nails had turned into leaving deep groves in the hardwood floor when Holtzmann dragged them over it during clenching her hands into fists.

And then, the change was complete, the trembling stopped and the engineer just knelt there, panting heavily; not quite sure if it’d be a good idea to touch her, Erin just remained perfectly still next to her, and it took all her willpower to not flinch back when Holtzmann raised her head at last and stared at her, an eerie, bright yellow glow filling her eyes.

Erin had a second to ask herself if Holtzmann actually recognized her – then the engineer leapt forward and made her cry out in shock at the sudden, unexpected movement, her eyes growing impossibly wide when her friend’s body slammed into hers and threw her down flat onto her back, the air getting knocked out of her as she hit the floor, so she couldn’t even cry out, only a helpless huff coming from her as she found herself pinned down by Holtzmann’s now much bulkier and heavier body.

“Holtz”, she brought out, in a high, breathless voice, earning a low rumble of a growl which made her fear skyrocket, and she asked herself how she could have been so dumb, ending up in this situation, without anyone nearby to help her, “Holtz, it’s… it’s me, Erin, you don’t want to hurt me…”

Holtzmann growled again, then lowered her head, and Erin squeezed her eyes shut, sure that she would be bitten any moment now; she had a moment to crazily wonder if, should she survive this, she’d become a werewolf, too, like her friend – and then, she felt something rough and warm and wet on her face, belatedly realizing that Holtzmann just had licked her.

Slowly, Erin dared to open her eyes again as the weight vanished from her body; she found the engineer still looming over her, not pinning her down anymore though, and after just staring somewhat gobsmacked for a few moments, Erin dared to slowly sit up, glad when Holtzmann just watched her and didn’t try to pounce her again.

“Um, okay”, she said, the blonde tilting her head slightly in reaction to her voice, “you don’t want to kill and eat me, so thanks for that. Um… can you understand what I’m saying?”

She wasn’t quite sure what sort of answer she expected, but apparently, Holtzmann at least did have a vague idea of what her words meant; she let out a mixture of grunt and growl which sounded strangely agreeing, and Erin let out the breath she hadn’t even noticed she’d been holding, fully realizing how lucky she was and how wrong this could have gone.

“Okay”, she said again, just to keep her mind from coming up with all sorts of dreadful scenarios, most of them involving Holtzmann tearing her apart with teeth and claws, “so, you understand me, good. Um… Can you talk?”

This time, Holtzmann huffed in response, a sound Erin figured was the equivalent of No; feeling daring after at least a bit of communication had been possible though, the physicist slowly reached out, Holtzmann following her every moment, until she could touch the top of the engineer’s head, pleasantly surprised at how soft the fur her hair had turned into felt beneath her fingers.

“Okay”, she said again, smiling when Holtzmann reacted to her touch by lifting her head slightly, practically leaning into it, reminding her more of a cat than of a werewolf, “so, we can communicate. A bit at least. Um… so… do you think you can… you know, turn back? Gosh it sounds so weird to say that.”

Holtzmann huffed again, and Erin frowned, not quite sure what to do now – here she was, her close friend having shape-shifted into some weird hybrid of wolf and human, and apparently, didn’t know how to change back, her blood running cold as she wondered if this meant that the engineer was stuck now, or if she’d turn back more or less automatically once the night was over.

“Okay”, she said for the fourth time, feeling a bit dumb, “it’s gonna work somehow, I guess. You wanna go watch TV?”

It was absurd, she realized the moment she said it, suggesting this, of all things; she knew though that going out was not an option as long as Holtzmann looked like this, and she was too wired to sleep after all the excitement, and to her amazement, Holtzmann let out the agreeing noise in reply, then came to her feet, letting her notice that her toenails had shredded her socks and that her feet had gotten quite a bit bigger, too, making the redhead glad that the engineer hadn’t been wearing shoes when the change had happened.

“Alright”, she decided that she had said Okay often enough in the last ten minutes, “let’s go downstairs then. I think we have some steak in the fridge, would you like that?”

Holtzmann let out a much happier noise this time, and all at once, Erin was completely sure that, if the change had included the growing of a tail – which it hadn’t – the engineer would be wagging it happily now, like an overjoyed dog, and she laughed, shaking her head at the absurdity as she got up.

“And here I was thinking that being a Ghostbuster would be the weirdest thing I’d ever do”, she commented as she walked to the stairs, Holtzmann right behind her; she earned a sort of mixture of snort and growl in response, and wondered if this was the werewolf equivalent to laughter, smiling to herself as she walked down the stairs.

Like an overjoyed puppy, Holtzmann followed her to the kitchen, waiting patiently as Erin opened the fridge and found the steaks; immediately, the engineer’s eyes focused on them, and the physicist smiled at her as she handed the pack to the blonde, raising an eyebrow at how immediately, Holtzmann started tearing into the meat.

“You at least could have waited until we made it to the couch”, Erin remarked, earning another huff in response which made her laugh again; she briefly wondered how she dealt with this so easily, then shrugged it off – it was still Holtzmann after all, as her behaviour towards her showed, and she didn’t feel as if she was in danger anymore, even though it still felt decidedly surreal when she moved to the couch, sat down and the engineer dropped onto it next to her, ending up with her head in her lap.

Without thinking, Erin moved her hand to the back of Holtzmann’s neck, starting to rub the fur there tenderly; Holtzmann let out a noise she interpreted to be a sign of content, and she smiled as she kept it up, finding the remote with her free hand and zapping through the channels until she found something interesting enough, never stopping the rubbing of Holtzmann’s neck until both of them drifted off into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a little extra, this is pretty much the picture I based Holtzmann's transformation on: http://raynfall.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/werewolf.jpg


	12. Chapter 12

“What in the name of Hypatia is going on here?” The startled cry from Abby tore Erin out of her slumber, and she flinched awake on the couch, immediately feeling the crick in her neck from spending the night sitting up; a second later, she felt the warm weight on her lap, and realized that Holtzmann and she had fallen asleep the previous night, immensely relieved when she looked down on the engineer and saw that she was back to human.

And that her clothes were shredded beyond repair, which probably had been the reason for Abby’s outcry, the fact that she had referenced Hypatia in said outcry only telling Erin how startled the researcher was – after all, she only asked things in the name of long dead female scientists when she was very surprised or upset.

“Good morning to you, too”, she stalled, poking Holtzmann in the back to make her wake up, too; the engineer grunted, then opened her eyes and, after realizing that she was back to human and lying in Erin’s lap, sat up, running both hands through her hair as she blinked up at Abby.

“What is going on”, Abby demanded to know, “Holtzmann, you look as if the world’s most gigantic moth attacked your clothes!”

“That’s… not what happened”, Erin replied, not quite sure if she could reveal what actually had been the cause for Holtzmann’s ruined clothing; she glanced at the engineer, making it clear to her that this was her call, and the blonde cleared her throat in reply, shifting on the couch a bit, aware that Abby and Patty weren’t taking all of this quite as easily as Erin, but figuring that they had a right to know.

“It was a full moon yesterday”, she thus said, shifting uncomfortably again, even though she felt a bit better when Erin reached out and grasped her hand, the contact not unnoticed, but uncommented by Abby, “and… something happened. I kinda… changed.”

“Oh I should have taken a picture”, Erin lamented, realizing too late that this hadn’t been a very appropriate thing to say when Abby shot her a look and blushing; she cleared her throat and shrugged, glad that the smirk Holtzmann sent her way showed that the blonde hadn’t been offended.

“Well”, the engineer then drawled, “if this becomes a regular thing, you’ll have a chance next month. Anyway… I went kinda wolfish? I remember everything, I could understand what Erin was saying to me and sort of reply, but I couldn’t talk. It was exhausting and made me really hungry.”

“I noticed when you attacked the steaks”, Erin pointed out, earning a low snort; gobsmacked, Abby stared at them, then demanded to know how exactly Holtzmann had changed, and the physicist took over, explaining what had happened the best she could, Abby shaking her head by the time she had gotten done.

“What you did was stupid”, she then said sternly, “you could have gotten hurt! What if Holtzmann hadn’t been in control!”

“Well, we didn’t know what would happen”, Erin defended herself, while Holtzmann frowned, “we weren’t even sure that anything would happen at all. Holtz was just extra fidgety, how was I supposed to know she’d go all werewolfy?!”

“Still, it was risky”, Abby argued, shaking her head, “what if Holtzmann had bitten you or something?”

“I would never hurt Erin and you know that”, Holtzmann said in a flat, uncharacteristically serious tone; Abby’s gaze softened in response, and she nodded, moving to sit down next to the engineer and giving her an unhappy look.

“You wouldn’t, we all know that”, she then said, making the blonde nod at once, “but we know nothing about what is going on with you, and you couldn’t know that you’d be in control enough to not attack her. And neither could Erin, so it was a risky thing to do.”

“It might have been”, Erin conceded, making the researcher look at her, “but I couldn’t just leave her alone, what if something had gone wrong and she’d needed help? This is all so new, and we have to learn as much about this as we can, so…”

She trailed off when footsteps approached, signalling that Patty had arrived; and as the tallest Ghostbuster approached the other three, they all could tell at once that something was wrong, just from the look on her face, and Holtzmann having the added extra of picking up quite a bit of dismay through the historian’s scent.

“You guys remember what the government mooks said about those ghosts in the park?” she claimed, without preamble, waving a newspaper around as if to underline her words, “how several people got attacked before they called us about it?”

“Yes”, Erin was the one to answer, her mouth suddenly dry and her heart beating faster as she all at once simply just knew that they were about to be told something dreadful, “when they still thought it’s ghost dogs, not wolves.”

“Look at this”, Patty said, handing the newspaper to the physicist; Holtzmann leaned closer to see, and Abby moved to stand behind Erin so she could read it, too, and the way all three of them went wide-eyed moments later would have been comical, had the circumstances not been so serious.

**Beast on the Loose!** the headline practically screamed, right there on the cover; beneath it, there was a grainy and blurry photo, but despite the bad quality of the picture, Erin recognized the creature on it as one very similar to the one Holtzmann had turned into the previous night, and the text beneath the picture explained that “what appeared to be a sort of wild animal” had attacked random people on the street in the middle of the night.

“That’s not me”, Holtzmann said at once, before anyone could get the idea that she had gone out during the night to attack someone, prompting Erin to place a calming hand on her back, the physicist’s voice firm, but reassuring when she was the one to reply. “No, it’s not. You were here with me all night.”

“Other people got attacked”, Abby reminded them of what Patty had said a minute ago, “I imagine at least one of them got bitten, too. So what if…”

“If it’s not just me”, Holtzmann finished for her, frowning at the photo, “but… why go out and attack someone, I mean, yeah, I changed but I was still me. Just less articulate and a bit hairier.”

“Much hairier”, Erin corrected, smiling innocently at how Holtzmann raised an eyebrow at her; the smile faded though as she took another look at the newspaper, wondering how many people exactly had been bitten by the ghostly wolves, if all of them were going through the same thing which had happened to Holtzmann – and if the people the werewolf had attacked the previous night had been bitten, too, and if those bites would make them change, as well.

“We have to find out who this is, and stop them”, Abby said, frowning at the newspaper, “before more people get hurt. Perhaps it’s not quite our jurisdiction, since it’s not technically a ghost, but… we know what is happening, and I don’t want to call this in, because who knows which ideas the government mooks might get if we have to reveal that Holtzmann is affected, too.”

“Yeah, they might be funding us, but that doesn’t mean we can trust them with this”, Holtzmann agreed at once, not liking the thought of government-paid doctors prodding and poking at her, and even less fancying the idea of doctors with less scruples locking her up in some sort of lab, “so we better keep a low profile about this. But we do have to find out who is attacking people.”

“Does it say where the attacks happened?” Erin wanted to know, peering at the newspaper again in an attempt to answer her own question;, the article did provide this information, claiming at the attack had happened close to Abingdon Square Park, not specifying the exact spot though, to the slight dismay of the four women.

“We should check the general area out”, Erin suggested anyway, earning nods from the other three, “Holtzmann, you and me? It might be too conspicuous if all four of us go there, but if it’s just us, and maybe, you’ll pick up on something…”

“First though, I’ll need a shower and breakfast, I’m starving”, Holtzmann declared, making the physicist nod; they both got up from the couch, Holtzmann going upstairs to shower while Erin used the downstairs bathroom, both of them thinking about what had happened during the night and wondering if they’d find out anything at the park.


	13. Chapter 13

Reasoning that Abby and Patty might need Ecto-1 in case a bust got called in while Erin and Holtzmann were investigating at the park, the two of them took the subway; that had seemed like a good idea when they had come up with it, but now that they actually were in the subway, Holtzmann regretted having suggested it, realizing too late that she now had to face what only could be described as an onslaught of scents.

Her eyes watered as she tried to breathe as flatly as possible so she wouldn’t pick up as many smells; noticing her turmoil, Erin gave her a concerned look, making sure to keep her voice low so no one around them might hear when she asked Holtzmann if she was okay.

“I will be once we get out of here”, Holtzmann grumbled, giving her an unhappy look, “honestly, be glad you have a regular sense of smell. This is… bad.”

“Poor you”, Erin showed sympathy, reaching out and placing one hand on the blonde’s shoulder; Holtzmann gave her a weak smile and shrug in response, glad though when the physicist let her know that they’d be there soon now.

“Two more stops”, she then clarified after a brief glance at the route map; Holtzmann let out a vaguely agreeing noise in reply, then reached up to push up her glasses and pinch the bridge of her nose, asking herself if she would ever get used to this – or if she’d have to suffer from an overload of smells for the rest of her life, a thought which didn’t seem all too appealing to her.

Finally though, the subway came to a halt at their stop, and she got out as fast as she could without running; Erin was right behind her, and they headed up the stairs together, out of the subway station and outside into the relatively fresh air.

“Ooff, better”, Holtzmann said with a sigh of relief, and took in a deep breath afterwards, “not ideal, because this is New York, but better than the subway. So, where do we go now? Park entrance?”

“Might be a good start”, Erin nodded, already beginning to walk, Holtzmann trudging along next to her, “I mean, we aren’t even sure what we are looking for. We’re casting a very wide net, here.”

“Not even sure it can be called a net”, Holtzmann sighed, looking around, as if an answer would pop up, should she just happen to look at the right spot, even though she knew how unlikely that was, “I think a fishing pole would be a better metaphor. One we randomly throw into a bigass ocean and hope we catch something.”

“That is indeed a better metaphor”, Erin replied with a small laugh, and Holtzmann smirked back at her; she winked, then stopped at the park entrance and looked around, trying to spot any evidence for what had happened the previous night, blood stains, perhaps, or some sort of strange scent she could pick up.

She wondered how long any werewolf scents might linger, if they would do so longer than the smell of a human, and if she’d actually recognize it as the scent of another werewolf; it annoyed her a bit that they didn’t know more about this, but figured that now was a good chance to learn more, if they actually found something.

“It’s too bad we can’t just call the police and ask”, Erin commented, glancing around, “they would give us the information, but then they would want to know why we want to know that, and the risk that they find out what is going on is just too high.”

“Yeah, never trust The Man”, Holtzmann gave back, earning a little giggle from the physicist and smirking at her again, then glanced around once more, trying to remember the photo the newspaper had printed and to figure out if the bit of background which had been visible on it had looked like anything nearby.

To her dismay, she couldn’t spot anything which might tip her off; she frowned a bit as she kept walking, Erin right next to her, the physicist glancing around as well, letting out an unhappy sigh after they aimlessly had wandered around for almost ten minutes.

“I’m not sure this is leading anywhere”, she then said what Holtzmann had been thinking, “are you… picking up anything?”

“No”, the blonde sighed, oddly feeling as if she had disappointed Erin and feeling bad about that, “perhaps this is a waste of time. It sucks we can’t just go to the hospital and ask the dude who got attacked, maybe he would have been able to—”

The scent hit her like a sledgehammer, strong and almost assaulting her nostrils, an odour so different from that of other humans that it nearly made her dizzy; it was a strange mixture of human and animal, and she found herself wondering, somewhat numbly, if she smelled like this, too, to any others like her which might be out there.

“Holtzmann!” she heard Erin cry out, with a certain urgency in her voice which showed that the redhead was scared for her; then, she felt the other woman’s hand on her shoulder, and tried to reassure her that she was fine, but all she could bring out was a low mixture of grunt and growl as she fought to handle the still awfully strong smell.

“I’m fine”, she finally managed to press out, squeezing her eyes shut as she felt a by now familiar twinge in her jaw; belatedly, she realized that she had doubled over, and forced herself to straighten up again, before she could attract any unwanted attention.

_No,_ she strictly thought at herself as she felt the twinge in her jaw again, along with the itch caused by hair sprouting at supernatural speed, _you won’t change. Not here with all these people around. Stay in control, dammit._

“Holtz”, Erin said again, moving so that she was facing her, grasping both her shoulders by now, “Holtz, look at me. It’s okay. Um… this is probably easier said than done…but can you try to calm down? What is happening, why are you changing?”

“Smell”, Holtzmann brought out, hearing the lisp in her voice caused by her canines by now protruding past her bottom lip; she let her head hang low, so no one would see, glad that Erin was standing close enough now to block at least part of the people walking past from getting a good look at her, but still she figured that she had to get this under control fast.

“Holtz”, Erin said once more, sounding alarmed now, her grip on the engineer’s shoulders tightening slightly, “Holtz? Look at me. Come on, focus on me, it’s okay, just…”

She trailed off as Holtzmann did look up and their eyes met; and even though her teeth were still doing their wolf thing, and she figured she didn’t look all too attractive like that, the scent of Erin’s arousal came back with full force when their gazes met, and before she knew what was happening, the physicist’s grip on her shoulders tightened even further – and then she practically yanked her closer and their lips met.

It only took Holtzmann a second to get over her surprise, her eyes widening at first, then closing as she melted into the kiss; she felt Erin’s hands move from her shoulders to clasp behind her neck, and barely registered that she was moving, too, was placing her hands on the physicist’s waist to pull her closer, the scent of her arousal and her joy only growing when the kiss deepened.

She felt Erin move her fingers, just a tiny bit, just enough to caress the fine hair growing there, and that sent pleasant shivers up and down her spine; one of her hands moved from the physicist’s waist to her back in an attempt to pull her even closer, until Erin was practically pressed against her, both of them breathing heavier by the time they pulled apart again.

“Wow”, Holtzmann brought out, noticing at once that her teeth were back to normal and that the itching had stopped too; Erin smiled back at her, somewhat dreamily, then reached up and ran her fingers down the smaller woman’s cheek, making her smile as well, and not only because all the physicist encountered there was perfectly smooth skin.

“Wow indeed”, Erin agreed, then let out a nervous giggle, “and, um, sorry? That was kinda out of nowhere, but I couldn’t think of a better way to… distract you sounds wrong, but…”

“Well, it worked like a charm”, Holtzmann reassured her, “and it wasn’t as out of nowhere as you might think.”

Erin shot her a questioning look, and for a moment, the engineer wasn’t quite sure if she should tell her; then, she decided that honesty was the way to go, and leaned closer to her, whispering right into her ear, her words making the smell come back once more while Erin blushed deeply.

“Remember my enhanced sense of smell?” Holtzmann reminded her unnecessarily, “I could smell that you… well… _like_ me.”

“Oh”, Erin squeaked, somehow blushing even more, the blush spreading all the way to her chest; then, she saw the sparkle in Holtzmann’s eyes, and the smirk which curled her lips, and realized that, while she might not be able to pick up any scents indicating this, Holtzmann _liked_ her too, and she forced the embarrassment aside as she smiled at the blonde again, then pulled her in for another kiss, the reason for their trip to this park at least for the moment forgotten.


	14. Chapter 14

Finally, after kissing several more times, Erin remembered why they had gone to the park in the first place, and brought the search for the other werewolf back to Holtzmann’s attention; the engineer didn’t seem all too happy about the interrupted kissing, but figured that Erin had made a good point, and tried to focus on the strong werewolf scent again, even though that was quite difficult, considering how aroused the physicist was smelling by now.

It was a strange boost for Holtzmann’s ego to know that she had been the cause of this, and for the heat she could see in Erin’s eyes when the redhead looked at her; reminding herself of the task at hand though, she tried to keep her focus on that, even though her mind kept wandering, thinking ahead to when they’d be back at HQ, and to the things she wanted to do to Erin then.

_Jeepers, Holtzmann, focus,_ she scolded herself, taking another deep breath through her nose in an attempt to follow the scent to wherever it might lead; Erin walked along next to her in silence, not wanting to break her concentration by talking to her, but apparently in need of physical contact, her hand slipping into Holtzmann’s after just walking along next to her for a minute or two, a smile curling her lips again when she felt the engineer’s fingers wrap around hers.

“Dang it”, Holtzmann broke the silence after a while, frowning, “the scent is all around on this place, within that radius of about five meters, and then it just stops. What the Hell?”

“Maybe this is where he changed and the attack happened”, Erin theorized, smiling slightly when Holtzmann sniffed and wiped at her nose, clearly not all too happy about having had to focus on that certain scent for so long, “and then he regained control? Maybe the person he attacked was someone he knew, what if they were out on a walk together or something?”

“But why attack them if he knew them”, Holtzmann gave back, frowning, “I mean, you were there with me when I… changed, but I was still me, I never would have hurt you.”

“You licked me, though”, Erin pointed out, raising an eyebrow, “so was that technically our first kiss then, and not the one from minutes ago? I’m not sure I like that.”

“I’ve always wanted to lick you”, Holtzmann replied, perfectly serious, even though the corners of her mouth twitched when Erin let out a startled “Holtz!” in response, “that was the best excuse I’d ever get.”

Shaking her head, Erin gave her best to look strict and solemn – before she smiled, leaned in and whispered into the blonde’s ear, her words making Holtzmann’s eyes go wide and her heart beat faster.

“Well, looks like we won’t find anything here”, the physicist said, making sure no one else could hear her, “so why don’t we go back to HQ? This time, you won’t even need an excuse to use your tongue on me.”

“That”, Holtzmann brought out, in a breathless, throaty voice which sent shivers up and down Erin’s spine, “was the hottest thing I have ever heard. Oh, my God.”

Erin just smiled, glad that her brief moment of being daring and actually saying this had worked out so well; Holtzmann was looking at her as if she wanted to jump her right there, in the middle of the park, and her knees went dangerously weak as she realized she couldn’t remember the last time someone had looked at her like this, with such open lust and need.

“Let’s go”, Holtzmann added, still sounding so oddly breathless, “or I swear to Tesla, I’ll jump you here and now.”

“We might get arrested then, so better don’t”, Erin pointed out, starting to walk at the same time, back to the gate they had entered the park through, Holtzmann not bothering with the subway this time, but stopping the next cab, neither of them aware of the angry gaze following their every move.

* * *

 

“Abby?” Erin called out as she entered the fire station, frowning when no response came, “Patty? You guys here?”

“They went out to get food”, Kevin helpfully informed her from the receptionist desk, in the process of pulling on his jacket, “and I have to go, too, not for food, but to hide and seek training. See you guys!”

“Let’s hope they really went out for food and not to a bust, because if it’s a bust, they might need backup”, Erin commented once Kevin was out of earshot, “but if it is food, well, we’ll have HQ to ourselves.”

“Hmhm”, Holtzmann let out, sounding so strange that Erin felt alarmed, giving her a worried look; she quickly realized though that nothing bad was happening, but that the engineer was staring at her quite lustily again, licking her lips before she continued.

“I imagine though that they did go out for food”, she said, the way she was looking at Erin making the physicist blush, “cause if it had been a bust, they would have called or at least sent a text. So it’s just you and me.”

She stepped closer to Erin, one of her arms wrapping around the redhead’s waist while her other hand came up to rest along her jawline; this time, Holtzmann was the one to initiate the kiss, and Erin kissed her back at once, unable to hold back a low moan when the kiss deepened again and she felt the heat of Holtzmann’s tongue exploring her mouth.

By the time Holtzmann pulled back from the kiss, Erin was breathing heavily, and she didn’t need to ask the engineer if she could smell her arousal this time; she could feel it, in the heat between her legs, and from the way Holtzmann looked at her, she was very aware of it, as well, her eyes glinting when she, quite unexpectedly, bent her knees and practically swept Erin off her feet, picking her up on her arms and making her squeal with a mixture of surprise and delight.

“Wow”, she then mumbled, as Holtzmann started walking, carrying her upstairs to her lab with ease, “you’re stronger than you look.”

“Must be a werewolf perk”, the engineer gave back, even going as far as stopping halfway up the stairway to kiss the physicist again; briefly, Erin was concerned that she might turn out too heavy and end up getting dropped after all, then realized how firm and secure Holtzmann’s hold on her was, and kissed the blonde back, wrapping both arms around her neck, oddly aware of how romantic they had to look.

Even though she figured that Patty and Abby would squeal at the sight – or, depending on their mood, claim that they were too sweet and start to make gagging noises – she was glad that they were alone for this; she was eager to sleep with Holtzmann for the first time, but she certainly didn’t want to do this with Abby and Patty sitting downstairs and knowing exactly what the two of them were doing upstairs.

The kiss ended, and Holtzmann got moving again, carrying her up the rest of the stairs and through the lab, to the small room in which she slept whenever she had gotten too engrossed in her work to go home; and once there, the engineer took a moment to kick the door close, then lowered her onto the bed, Erin keeping her hands clasped behind the smaller woman’s neck though, and pulling her close the moment her back touched the bed, for yet another deep kiss.

She felt Holtzmann’s hand slide beneath her shirt, and moaned into her mouth; and then, the engineer pulled back from the kiss, and started kissing her throat, only making her moan louder, a low growl coming from the blonde in response, and later, Erin would wonder what it said about her that hearing this turned her on even more, but in this very moment, she couldn’t form a thought as coherent as that, only able to focus on Holtzmann’s touch and kiss and on how it was making her feel, how good and right it felt, only now fully aware of how long she had been wanting this.


	15. Chapter 15

When Erin and Holtzmann came back downstairs, Abby and Patty were back from getting food, and apparently had been for a while, judging from the various opened food boxes spread on the table; Abby took one look at them and raised an eyebrow, then grinned as she shot Erin a knowing look, the physicist cursing herself for her tendency to blush as she felt her cheeks heat up.

“You a thing now, huh”, Patty commented, only causing Erin’s blush to deepen while Holtzmann just smirked, “you want some Chinese?"

It surprised Erin a bit how blasé the two of them were about this new development, then realized that perhaps, they had seen it coming – Holtzmann had been flirting with her from day one after all, and certainly, both Abby and Patty had noticed her warming to the blonde’s advances.

“Didcha get anything with meat?” Holtzmann wanted to know, reminding them all of her increased appetite for this particular kind of food; nodding, Patty pushed one of the boxes closer to her, her verbal response making the engineer grin quite wolfishly, and again Erin wondered what it said about her when she felt a tingle in certain areas at the sight.

“Beef, and we asked the guy to leave it almost rare cause we know you’re into that now”, the historian explained, while Holtzmann opened the box somewhat greedily and licked her lips in anticipation, causing another tingle for Erin; she cleared her throat, thankful for the distraction provided by Abby, in form of the researcher handing another unopened box to her.

“We got you fried noodles”, Abby told her, earning a “Thank you” and a smile from her friend; Erin took a seat at the table, and Holtzmann sat down next to her, using one hand to basically devour her food – while she put the other on the physicist’s thigh, making her feel decidedly hot again as she glanced over at the engineer.

Holtzmann smiled back at her, nothing wolfish in her smile this time, just pure innocence; both Abby and Patty noticed that her hand had gone beneath the table though, and figured out quickly where it was resting, the historian snorting while Abby just rolled her eyes.

“You guys are going to be all sugary sweet around us, won’t you”, she then demanded to know, raising an eyebrow again, “fair warning, if you get too gross, I’ll throw things at you.”

“As long as you don’t throw stuff from my lab”, Holtzmann gave back, then suddenly frowned, sounding thoughtful as she went on, “and now I wonder, do I have some sort of fetching instinct now like a doggie? Gosh, imagine you throw something and I have to run and get it.”

“The possibilities would be endless”, Abby said, sounding way too gleeful about the idea for Holtzmann’s liking, “let’s find out!”

She picked up a balled up wrapping paper from their take-out and threw it across the room; Holtzmann just looked at her flatly, and she let out a little “aw”, only to brighten up again moments later as she looked at Erin.

“You try”, she told the physicist, earning a raised eyebrow, “you’re… special to Holtz, maybe it’ll work when you throw something!”

“I will not experiment on my girlfriend like that”, Erin primly replied, only to freeze a second later as she realized that she had just referred to Holtzmann as her girlfriend; Abby and Patty were aware of what had happened between them, so she didn’t worry about them, but Holtzmann and she hadn’t truly specified anything about the state of their relationship, having been too busy with other, much more carnal things, and now, her anxiety reared its ugly head as she couldn’t help, but wonder if perhaps, she had spoken too quickly, if Holtzmann didn’t want anything so serious and just saw this as some sort of friends-with-benefits arrangement.

“Thanks, babe”, Holtzmann said, patting her thigh and smiling reassuringly at her; and just like that, Erin’s worries were gone, and she smiled back at the blonde, her smile only widening when her thigh was patted once more.

“Man, you two are really cheesy”, Patty commented, earning a shrug from Holtzmann while Erin blushed again; and just then, the sound of the fire stations doorbell echoed through the ground floor, making them all pause mid-movement or mid-bite, before Abby remembered Kevin wasn’t there and got up from her seat.

It wasn’t often that people bothered by ghosts showed up right at their headquarters, but not the first time, either and so, nobody of them thought much of it; upon opening the door, Abby found herself face to face with a tall man, dark eyes beneath a mop of shaggy brown hair flitting around nervously, looking at everything but at her.

“Um, hello”, he said, shifting his feet, “I’m looking for Dr Jillian Holtzmann?”

“Holtzmann!” Abby yelled in reply, making the guy grimace and flinch, one of his hands briefly coming up to touch his ear, “you got a visitor!”

Curious, Holtzmann got up from her seat, eying the man as she approached him; he didn’t look familiar, but something about him gave her pause, and once she was close enough to take in his scent, she stopped dead, her eyes briefly widening, then narrowing as she recognized his scent.

“Jillian”, he said, before she had the chance to speak up, taking a step closer to her, and she felt her wolf bristle in response, “you know who I am.”

“Hell yeah I know”, the engineer replied, her wolf making it easy to stand her ground even when he took another step closer, “you’re the maniac who attacked people in the park last night.”

The others were still sitting, but close enough to hear the exchange; Erin had started to frown when the man had referred to Holtzmann as “Jillian”, but at hearing the blonde say this, she practically jumped to her feet, eyes wide now, realizing with a flash of fear that they had no weapons at the HQ which would help against an aggressive werewolf, only gear suitable for busting ghosts.

“I’m here for you”, the man told her, completely ignoring her remark about attacking innocent people, “you are like me. We are meant to be with each other.”

“No, buster, we are not”, Holtzmann gave back at once, glaring at him, feeling her wolf bristle even further at how brazen he was, and at the way he was looking at her, as if she was a piece of meat he wanted to devour, “but if you’re smart, you just sit still now while we make a phone call. We can’t let you hurt anyone else.”

“It was destiny that we both changed!” he protested in reply, while Abby, Patty and Erin approached cautiously, Erin glancing around nervously as she tried to spot something, anything, which could be used as a weapon, should he go feral and attack them, “we are meant for each other, I’m telling you!”

“It was a coincidence, nothing more”, Holtzmann replied, her fingers twitching as the beast within her demanded control to take this man down a peg or two, “actually, if I hadn’t been my usual reckless self and had pushed Erin aside, she would’ve been bitten. Sorry, buddy, no destiny there. And we certainly aren’t meant for each other!”

She could smell the second his anger flared, and in the exact same moment, she stopped holding herself back, as well, recognizing the danger for what it was – she knew exactly how much control one had during and after the change, and knew that he simply had attacked those people because he had been able to, and not because the wolf had taken over.

The other three had been slowly advancing, but stopped dead in perfect unison when Holtzmann began to growl; it wasn’t a loud growl, not at the moment, but threatening enough, the natural blue of her eyes vanishing as yellow took over, and after a second, the man started to growl, as well, the three women exchanging uneasy looks when both Holtzmann and their unwanted visitor sprouted extra hair and they could see teeth and nails grow sharper and pointier.

“You shouldn’t have rejected me”, he snarled, clenching his fists while his hair spread down his neck and back; the only response he got was that Holtzmann growled louder, her snarling mixing with the shocked cry Erin let out when both her girlfriend and the guy shot forward at exactly the same second, colliding violently, the physicist barely noticing how Abby grabbed her and pulled her back, out of the danger zone as the two werewolves fought, unable to look away, her heart racing in her chest now as she realized she had no idea how this fight would end.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so. There is a certain event in this chapter which might make you want to kill me the moment you read it, but please fight the urge until you got to the end of the chapter. Just sayin' ;)

It all had happened so fast, Erin would realize later; while Holtzmann had been fighting the stranger, it had seemed to go on forever, but only minutes had ticked past, and it only had taken minutes until the engineer had slipped up, not used to hand to hand combat, and things had gone so horribly wrong.

It had been one mistake, and not even a big one; it had allowed him to gain the upper hand though, and he had made use of that, one hand firmly gripping her jaw, the other going to the back of her head, Erin crying out “No!” the second she realized what he was about to do.

Holtzmann’s eyes met hers, wide and scared and, Erin noticed, back to blue, giving her a second to wonder if her obvious fear had pushed the wolf back – and then the man tightened his hold on her, and jerked her head to the right with a sharp, harsh move, and Erin heard her neck break.

“No!” she found herself unable to hold back a scream, while the stranger only now seemed to realize what he had done, his eyes going wide as he let go of the engineer, and Erin knew that she would never forget the low thump with which Holtzmann hit the ground.

The stranger stared at the blonde for another moment, then turned and ran without another word; and this snapped the three Ghostbusters out of their shock, and Abby ran for the nearest phone while Erin and Patty rushed to where Holtzmann laid in a crumpled, lifeless heap.

“Oh God”, Erin brought out as she fell onto her knees next to the blonde, and saw the unnatural angle at which her head laid to the rest of her, “no, no. Please, no. Holtzmann!”

She grabbed the engineer and pulled her up against her upper body, so her head slumped forward and came to rest on the physicist’s shoulder; from the corner of her eye, she saw Patty kneel down next her, but paid her no mind, fully focused on the woman in her arms.

The woman who laid so dreadfully still in her embrace and wasn’t breathing.

“Holtzmann”, Erin said again, as if just saying her name with enough force would magically heal her and bring her back, “Holtz, no. Don’t do this to me. We only just found each other, you can’t… please Holtz…”

Tears blurred her sight, then rolled down her cheeks, dripped from her jaw and onto the blonde’s face; she kept talking, not even fully aware that she was doing so, pleading Holtzmann over and over again to not do this, to not leave her, not noticing that Abby was there now, too, and that she wasn’t the only one who was crying.

When she felt Holtzmann twitch in her arms, she was sure that her overstrained mind had made it up to comfort her.

Then it happened again, and she heard a resounding _crrrrack_ from the general vicinity of Holtzmann’s neck, and then, the engineer let out a harsh mixture of gasp and breath, a shudder running through her, and while Patty brought out a startled “Oh my God!”, all Erin could do was stare.

“Ow”, Holtzmann said, shifting a bit in Erin’s arms so she could rub her neck, as if she’d just gotten a crick there and it hadn’t actually been broken, “that’s gonna be sore for a few… Erin? Babe? Why are you crying?”

“Holtz?” Erin brought out in response, the engineer looking confused, but nodding; and a second later, Erin dissolved into helpless, horrified tears, crying into her hair as she clung to her, the blonde’s confusion only growing when Abby and Patty felt the need to throw both arms around her, too, the four of them ending up in a messy hug on the floor.

“Okay”, Holtzmann brought out after a few seconds had ticked by like that, “I appreciate you guys too, but what is going on?”

“You were dead!” The words burst free from Erin between sobs, and she tightened her hold on the engineer even further, as if to make sure that she wouldn’t just slip away again, “he broke your neck and you were dead!”

“She’s right”, Patty agreed when Holtzmann only looked even more confused, “and then there was this bigass crack from your neck and you woke up again.”

“Jesus, Holtz”, Abby breathed, wiping at her eyes furiously while Erin forced herself to loosen her hold a bit again, not wanting to suffocate the blonde after somehow getting her back, “don’t you ever scare us like that again, you hear!”

“Sorry?” Holtzmann gave back, “I didn’t exactly plan to let that guy… you know. Um, guys?”

Neither Abby, nor Patty actually wanted to let go of her, but they both figured out quickly what she was aiming at and answered the unasked question by getting up; Abby mumbled something about having to call this in after all, seeing how dangerous this was, Patty needlessly reminding her to not mention that the guy wasn’t the only werewolf the team knew of, the two of them starting to work on their cover story for why he had come to them then as they walked away, giving the engineer and the physicist some privacy.

“Erin”, Holtzmann said, once the two were out of earshot, giving her best to sound calming and reassuring, even though she was quite freaked out herself by now, “Sweetheart.”

She fell silent as she realized that she had no idea what to say now; she wanted to find the right words to make Erin stop crying, but words never had been her strong suit, not when it came to comforting people or deep emotions, and so, all she could do for a few dreadful seconds was swallow heavily while her mind raced, trying to figure out what would make this better.

“Erin, I’m okay”, she finally said, figuring that this was as good a starting point as anything else, “I’m all fine. It’s okay.”

“I thought I’d lost you”, Erin brought out, tears still streaming down her face, her grip on the engineer tightening again, “you were dead Holtz, _dead_! I thought you’re gone, so shortly after we…”

“I got better?” Holtzmann replied with the first thing she could think of, and even though it probably had been a rather dumb thing to say, it had the effect she had been hoping for – Erin let out a small laugh, an oddly tearful one, but it was a laugh, and it made the engineer smile a bit, as well.

“I’m fine”, she said again, wiggling her fingers and toes for emphasis, “see? Perfectly fine. Must be some sort of werewolf perk, like the extra strength.”

“But you didn’t know that would happen when you started fighting him”, Erin pointed out, wiping at her eyes, the flow of tears slowly ceasing now, “what were you thinking, just going up against him like that?!”

“Not much”, Holtzmann had to admit, sighing, “maybe I, I dunno, was hoping that the wolf thing would give me awesome martial arts skills too. Sadly it didn’t.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay again”, Erin replied after a moment, pulling her closer again, almost starting to cry all anew when Holtzmann hugged her back this time, the sensation of being hugged by her almost too much after just minutes ago, she had been sure that she had lost her forever.

“Never do this again”, she whispered into the blonde’s hair, struggling to hold back fresh tears, “never scare me like this again, you hear?”

“I won’t”, Holtzmann gave back, rubbing her back soothingly, “promise.”

Erin managed a weak smile at this, the engineer beaming back at her much brighter; then, she pulled the physicist in for a kiss, silently reassuring her once more that she was okay and that she wouldn’t go anywhere anytime soon, relief flooding Erin’s heart and prompting her to tighten her hold on the engineer again, as if she could keep all danger away from her by just holding her close enough.


	17. Chapter 17

“We described the guy the best we could”, Abby told them a while later, once Erin had calmed down enough to actually focus on the talk, “but that wasn’t much. And we made sure to not mention that you’re kinda wolfish too, Holtz, so if those guys do come by to talk about this, make sure to not let the wolf show, alright?”

“We better hope they don’t piss me off then”, Holtzmann replied with a sigh, running one hand through her hair, “I doubt they’ll notice my hair is messier than it was the last time they saw me, but I’m pretty sure they’ll notice me growl at them.”

“Are they going to stop by?” Erin wanted to know, holding on to Holtzmann’s hand the whole time; she had grasped it the moment they had sat down, and hadn’t let go for a second since then, having to reassure herself that Holtzmann indeed was fine, the engineer running her thumb over the redhead’s knuckles every now and then in a tender caress, quietly reassuring her that she was there and that she was okay.

“No”, Patty let her know, “but you know those men in black type of guys, they might just show up because they can. If we’re lucky, they won’t though, and they’ll just hit up the police for any info they have on what happened in that park and leave us be.”

“Some luck would be nice”, Erin mumbled, prompting Holtzmann to give her hand a brief, tender squeeze; she smiled weakly at the blonde, then frowned as an unpleasant thought hit her.

“What if they can’t catch him”, she said it out loud, making the others frown as well, “and he comes back?”

“He might not be aware I’m not dead”, Holtzmann pointed out, feeling the physicist shudder slightly at the reminder that she had been, for a while, and briefly letting go of her hand so she could put one arm around the other woman’s shoulders and pull her closer, frowning at Abby’s response.

“Well, he might not be right now, but we aren’t exactly low profile”, the researcher pointed out, “sooner or later, we’ll end up in the paper or on the news again, then he’ll know for sure you’re not dead.”

“Good point”, Holtzmann sighed, “okay, just hoping he’ll never find out then is not an option. Also, we still can’t just let him run free, he uses the wolf thing as an excuse to harm people and we can’t let him do that.”

“Are you sure it’s just an excuse?” Patty wanted to know, raising an eyebrow at her, “I mean, no offense, girl, but you’re crazy. Maybe your crazy brain handles the wolf thing differently.”

“Valid point”, Holtzmann nodded, “but still, even if it isn’t his fault, it puts people in danger. We have to figure something out to stop him…”

“No”, Erin said strictly, having seen that look in the engineer’s eyes before, usually before she tested a weapon which had the potential to blow up in her hands, “you are not going out there as bait for him!”

“Do you have a better idea?” the engineer gave back, shrugging at the look Erin shot her, “and hey, it’s not like he can do much harm, in the long run. I mean, I did bounce back from a broken neck!”

Erin just stared at her for a few moments, then suddenly got up, so quickly that she threw Holtzmann off balance and nearly made her topple from her chair; she barely seemed to notice though, storming out of the room and upstairs without a word, the engineer looking after her somewhat dumbfounded, until Abby let out a groan and facepalmed.

“Dammit, Holtz”, she then said, gesturing wildly at the stairway, “go after her and apologize for being so thoughtless! Not even an hour ago, she was in tears and heartbroken because you were _dead_ , and now you joke about bouncing back from that?!”

“Seriously, girl”, Patty agreed, shaking her head, “go and make that better, and think about what you sayin’ this time!”

“Argh”, Holtzmann let out, only now fully realizing her blunder; she gave the two an apologetic look, then got up and followed Erin upstairs, Abby letting out another sigh while the engineer made her exit and shaking her head while Patty just rolled her eyes, asking herself how someone who was so smart about all things engineering could be so dense about other things.

* * *

 

Even before she entered the small room, Holtzmann could tell that Erin was crying; she heard her soft sniffles, and could actually smell her tears, her heart clenching up as she realized that it was her fault this time, that she’d be the one to make the physicist cry.

“Erin?” she mumbled as she knocked the door – there was no key to lock it, having been lost long before the Ghostbusters had moved into the fire station, so technically, Erin had no way of keeping her out, but Holtzmann didn’t want to make this even worse by just barging in when perhaps, Erin didn’t even want to see her in this very moment, “can I come in?”

For a minute which felt more like an hour, the only noise she got in response was Erin’s quiet sniffling; then, the physicist mumbled “Yes”, and Holtzmann felt a bit of relief, pushing the door open and giving the physicist a sheepish look as she found her sitting on the bed.

“I’m sorry”, she said before Erin could speak up, moving closer and awkwardly stopping in front of her, “I was thoughtless, and dumb, and because I’m an idiot, I didn’t realize how much it would hurt you when I said that bouncing back thing.”

Erin patted the bed next to her in response, and Holtzmann sat down; the physicist took in a deep breath, then wiped at her eyes, the slightly hoarse sound of her voice making the engineer’s heart clench up again when she spoke up.

“I know you didn’t mean any harm when you said that”, the redhead let her know, briefly glancing at her before her gaze focused on her lap again, her hands clenched there tightly enough to make her knuckles stand out, “but… Holtzmann, you mean so much to me, we only just found each other, and then I thought you’re gone and… you’ve been reckless enough before the whole wolf thing happened, but we don’t know how all of this works, how it affects you, what if this was just a one-time thing? What if you go to fight this man and he kills you again and you don’t come back this time?”

“Okay, so the bait thing wasn’t one of my brightest ideas”, Holtzmann sighed, “and you’re right, I know we don’t know enough about this, and it’d be foolish to just assume it will happen again. I’m sorry, I really am, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I know”, Erin reassured her, signalling that things were okay by moving closer to her and leaning against her; and immediately, Holtzmann put one arm around her and pulled her even closer, smiling slightly when she felt Erin relax noticeably against her.

“I’ll try to not be so reckless anymore”, she mumbled after a minute had ticked by in comfortable silence, “and we’ll come up with something less dangerous than Holtz is bait. Okay?”

“Okay”, Erin gave back, smiling now, the engineer feeling quite relieved at the sight; she smiled back at the redhead, then kissed her tenderly, and Erin embraced her tightly as she kissed her back, reassuring herself once more that Holtzmann was alive and well and that she wouldn’t go anywhere anytime soon.


	18. Chapter 18

For quite a while, the two of them just enjoyed being close to each other in Holtzmann’s little bedroom, snuggling and kissing, but not going farther than that; and it was a good thing that things hadn’t gone farther than innocent cuddling and kisses, since their time together got interrupted by Abby calling out to them from downstairs.

“Erin, Holtz”, the researcher was yelling, making them both flinch, “you good up there? We got called to a bust!”

“Be there in a minute!” Erin called back, clearing her throat afterwards as she ran both hands through her hair in an attempt to smooth it down – Holtzmann had greatly enjoyed running one hand through her hair as they had made out, and now it looked accordingly, and for a moment, she found it very unfair that Holtzmann’s wolf made her hair so shaggy that nobody could tell the difference anyway.

“Does that look okay?” she asked, giving up on her hair; Holtzmann nodded, with a reassuring smile, and Erin decided to just trust her about this and refrained from checking herself in a mirror, straightening her clothes as she got up from her seat on the bed.

“We better bust this ghost quickly”, she let Holtzmann know, smiling at her as she touched her hand, “because I feel like I need to be… much closer to you.”

The only reply she got was that Holtzmann let out a low growl, making the physicist smile knowingly at her; she leaned in for another kiss, a short and innocent one this time, before she was the first to walk out the room, feeling the engineer’s heated gaze on her backside as she moved past her and smiling to herself, Holtzmann following her after just staring for another second, bemoaning that a call had come in just now, and quite with Erin about taking care of the ghost quickly.

* * *

 

They had been called to an old warehouse, and that wasn’t surprising, since old locations tended to be haunted much more often than ones which had been built recently – unless during the process of building, some old spirits were dug up, sometimes quite literally; what was surprising though was the fact that no one was waiting for them, as it usually happened when they were called by a civilian and not by the government, the warehouse dark and empty when the Ghostbusters arrived there.

“That is weird”, Erin commented, glancing around as she got out of Ecto-1, the others following suit a moment later, “are we sure this is the right address?”

“Yes”, Abby confirmed after a quick glance at the piece of paper on which she had noted down the address, looking around as well afterwards and raising her voice, “hello? Anyone here? The Ghostbusters have arrived!”

“Something’s wrong”, Holtzmann mumbled when no reply came, taking in an audible breath, her nostrils flaring; Erin gave her a worried look, but before she could ask wat was going on, the engineer took another deep breath – and then, yellow flashed up in her eyes, and she started to growl, lowly for now, but Erin knew how fast this could change.

“Holtz?” she carefully said, stepping closer to her, “what is it? Do you… smell something?”

“ _Him_ ”, Holtzmann pressed out in reply, the physicist letting out a wince as this time, she was close enough to actually see the engineer’s teeth change in detail, fascinated by how they lengthened and sharpened, glistening in the artificial light Ecto-1 was casting onto the scene, wondering yet again if this actually hurt; then, the yellow filled Holtzmann’s eyes again, taking over once more, and her growls grew louder, a low chuckle reaching the ears of the group as the man they all recognized at once stepped out of the warehouse.

“You people are too predictable”, he stated, not having gone wolf the slightest yet, even though his eyes narrowed and Erin thought she could see a bit of yellow in them when he looked at Holtzmann, “I knew you’d come running the moment I’d tell you there’s a ghost here. Glad to see you got better, Jillian.”

“Man”, Patty said with a shake of her head, “you do know you’re wastin’ your time, right? Holtzy’s not into you.”

“I’m aware of that, yes”, he replied, raising an eyebrow sardonically, another flash of yellow in his eyes, “and that is not why I called you here. I don’t like being made a fool of, and I figure you ratted me out to your government friends by now, so I’ll just have to get you out of the way. Dr Gilbert, perhaps I should start with you, I can smell Jillian all over you and that is just… wrong.”

Erin just raised an eyebrow at that, not even wanting to dignify this remark with an answer; Holtzmann responded non-verbally as well, her growls growing even louder as she moved to stand in front of Erin, her fingers twitching when hair sprouted from the back of her hands and between her knuckles.

“Now, now”, he said, shaking his head, even though his eyes never left the engineer, “don’t do anything rash, Dr Holtzmann. Or did you forget already what happened last time we fought?”

“That won’t happen again this time”, Holtzmann replied, and even though Erin could only see her back, she knew that the engineer’s teeth were doing their wolf thing again, from the slight lisp she heard; the man let out an amused snort in reply, then took another step closer, his eyes flashing yellow again as he held the blonde’s gaze.

“I’ll take you out first, then”, he said, a distinctive growl in his voice now, as well, “and then I’ll take care of your friends.”

Holtzmann let out another growl in response, thinking back to the night of the full moon, of how it had felt when she had changed back then; she didn’t know if she could do this when there wasn’t a full moon in the sky, but what she did know was that the extra strength this strange state had given her would be her best bet to take this man down, if she could change and overpower him fast enough, before he might transform, as well.

She wasn’t quite as sure if she wanted to do this in front of Abby and Patty, well aware that it might freak them out and make them uncomfortable around her all over again; she’d rather have them alive and uncomfortable though than dead, and so, she willed herself to change, briefly dismayed that she actually knew so little about how this worked.

_Come on_ , she thought to herself, never looking away from the man while she tried to make the change happen, _come on, you can do this. Come on wolfy Holtz, you can do this._

She called to the beast within her, put everything she had into it, embracing it fully for the first time ever since she had been bitten; and from one moment to the next, the wolf was _just there_ , and she didn’t fight it this time, not like she had during the full moon, but encouraged it, and the man’s eyes went wide as he realized what was happening, showing her that it worked even before she felt the change begin.


	19. Chapter 19

When Erin had witnessed the change for the first time, it had been clear to her that it wasn’t a pleasant process, even painful; it had been somewhat slow, even though she figured it had seemed longer than it had actually been, and it had been obvious that Holtzmann hadn’t gone through it voluntarily.

This time, it was different, and even though they all were in grave danger, Erin found herself fascinated, and judging from how Abby and Patty stared, they felt the same, Patty whispering “Oh my _Lord_ ” under her breath, just loud enough for Erin to hear.

The change took mere seconds this time, and didn’t appear to hurt Holtzmann at all; her coveralls ripped and tore as she bulked up, fur once more showing through the tears, the man looking on in disbelief, and making Erin wonder if he couldn’t do this – and just then, the transformation was finished, and Holtzmann leapt forward, the way she had when she had tackled Erin after the first change.

“Holtzmann!” Erin snapped out of her reverie as she saw her partner slam into the man and throw him down to the ground, “don’t kill him!”

Holtzmann had understood her the first time this had happened, and she hoped that she did this time, too; if she had, she didn’t let it distract her from the fight though, her growls now mixing with those the man let out as he grappled with her.

_He can’t do it,_ Erin realized, somewhat amazed, _he can’t change like she did. And that means he doesn’t stand a chance._

She had felt how much stronger Holtzmann had been in this transformed state, when the engineer had tackled her; and while the wolf might enhance the man’s strength, as well, even if he couldn’t transform, he was no match for Holtzmann in this state, his growls cut off all at once when the engineer landed a blow against the side of his head which took him out.

Erin had a second to wonder if Holtzmann had heard her words about not killing the man; then, the engineer relaxed noticeably and backed away from him, the physicist letting out the breath she had been holding, not wanting to imagine what it might have done to her partner, had she lost control and killed the man.

“Good job, Holtzmann”, she said out loud, impressed with herself by how calm and collected her voice sounded; she thought back to the moment when the engineer had asked her why she, unlike Abby and Patty, wasn’t freaked out by what was happening to her, but still had no answer for that, figuring that it didn’t really matter in the end, giving the blonde a calming smile as she walked to where Holtzmann was crouched low on the ground.

“I’m gonna call our friends from the government”, Abby said, sounding a bit dazed as she stared at the creature her friend had turned into; somehow, she managed not to flinch when Holtzmann’s glowing yellow eyes focused on her, and even found herself able to smile at the engineer, feeling a bit trembly though when she went to the car to get her phone.

Clearly, Erin had no such qualms, stopping next to the blonde; and after a moment, she reached out and started rubbing Holtzmann’s neck, Patty shaking her head at the sight while the engineer let out a noise which showed how much she enjoyed that.

“Even when Holtzy’s in wolf mode, you guys are cheesy”, the historian accused, shaking her head, “I bet if she had a tail, she’d be waggin’ it now.”

The offended huff Holtzmann let out at that made Erin laugh, and the engineer reacted to that by bumping her hand gently with her head; still smiling, the physicist pulled her hand back, then gestured vaguely at her girlfriend, still sounding amused when she asked if she could change back now.

“Before our government friends arrive”, she added, reminding Holtzmann that the situation wasn’t quite over yet; the engineer let out another huff, even though she didn’t sound offended this time, and came to her feet, starting to change back just as Abby returned from making the call to the government mooks.

“We should have packed another jumpsuit for you”, she commented as all the bulk the transformation had brought vanished and left Holtzmann standing there in torn up coveralls, “let’s keep that in mind for future busts.”

“I’m hungry”, Holtzmann replied, not really surprising Erin, the physicist remembering well how she had devoured the meat during the full moon night, “let’s hope our friends arrive quickly and take this nitwit away.”

“You better go sit in the car”, Patty replied, gesturing at her ruined clothes, “or they might wanna know what happened to your coveralls, and how do we explain that then?”

“Good point”, Holtzmann had to admit, frowning down at herself; Abby smirked at her, and the engineer returned the smile at once, glad that Patty and the researcher were taking what had happened so well, and from the way Erin moved to put one hand on her back, she had noticed her partner’s concern, and shared her relief.

“Come on, Holtz”, the redhead said, “I’ll go sit in the car with you so you won’t be bored.”

“If you end up doin’ it in the backseat, I’m gonna kick both your asses”, Patty threatened, earning a chuckle from Holtzmann while Erin blushed, then shook her head, not giving any other response though, but grabbing Holtzmann’s hand instead and leading the way to the car.

They got into the backseat together, Holtzmann pulling the door shut behind herself; and the moment she had gotten comfortable, Erin snuggled up to her, moving one hand to lazily run it over her thigh as she spoke up.

“I’m glad you managed to take him out”, she let the engineer know, “and that you didn’t get… hurt this time. Did you know you can do this? Change without the full moon, I mean?”

“No”, Holtzmann replied, even though she thought she might get scolded for her recklessness again, “it’s… kinda hard to describe. I thought it might work, so I just… tried? I kinda gave the wolfy inside some mental snuggles, and that made the change happen, if that makes any sense.”

“Not really”, Erin told her with a small laugh, prompting her to grin sheepishly while she scratched the back of her head, “but I guess it’s a good thing, if you can control it like that now? Even though Abby was right about the jumpsuit thing.”

There was a tear right across Holtzmann’s stomach, exposing her abs to Erin’s eyes; and the physicist took the chance given by that, moving her hand from the blonde’s thigh to run her fingers over the exposed skin, smiling at the sharp breath she heard Holtzmann take in.

“You know”, she said, her tone prompting the engineer’s breath to quicken, “Patty forbade us to… do it in here”, at this, she blushed, her daringness not cancelling out how easily she got flustered whenever the talk came to the topic of intimacy, “but there was nothing said against making out.”

“That is true”, Holtzmann agreed, with just a hint of a growl in her voice; Erin smiled, running her hand from the engineer’s stomach to her waist, then leaned closer, murmuring into her girlfriend’s ear, briefly wondering if the blonde could smell her arousal yet again as she spoke.

“I’m not sure what it says about me”, she let Holtzmann know, shifting in the seat until she was practically pressed against the engineer, making her breath quicken yet again, “but whenever you do the growl thing? Or some other wolfy thing? I find it quite… appealing.”

“That’s a bit weird”, Holtzmann told her, with a smirk though to show her words meant no offense, “but that’s good, cause so am I. And I like weird.”

“Lucky me”, Erin mumbled, and then kept her from saying more by kissing her; the kiss deepened quickly, and by the time the government agents arrived outside to take mister werewolf away, neither of them noticed, too busy with each other and the things they made each other feel.


	20. Epilogue

“So our government friends took your abhorrent admirer away, Holtzmann”, Abby told them after having interrupted their make-out session, both Patty and her relieved that at least, both Erin and Holtzmann still were fully dressed, even though they both were quite obviously aroused, “thankfully, they didn’t ask why Erin and you are hiding out in here, they didn’t ask many questions in general. They did tell us though that no other incidents were reported, so apparently, he was the only one who attacked people with his new skills.”

“He didn’t seem all too stable”, Holtzmann commented, earning a huff and a nod from her girlfriend, “but well, I guess we don’t need to worry about him anymore? Any others might want to keep a low profile, like me.”

“I never would have thought I’d hear Jillian Holtzmann say that she wants to keep a low profile”, Abby teased, making it Holtzmann’s turn to huff, “but yeah, I guess you’re right. You want to drive, Holtz, or should I?”

“Clothes all torn up”, Holtzmann pointed out in response, “and also, Erin snuggles back here. You drive.”

“No makin’ out while we’re in the car with you”, Patty strictly said as she slid into the passenger seat, “that’s rude.”

“Alriiiight”, Holtzmann replied with a roll of her eyes, earning a giggle from Erin; she winked at the physicist, then stole a quick, fairly innocent kiss, raising her hands when Patty said “Hey!” while Abby started the engine and started to drive.

“That was just a smooch”, the engineer defended herself, making Patty roll her eyes, “making out is with tongue, there was no tongue!”

“Don’t you go talkin’ to me about tongues”, Patty scolded, making Erin giggle yet again while she turned to look out of the windshield again, “I swear to God, these crazy ass scientist girlfriends…”

“Wow, Patty is strict”, Holtzmann stage-whispered to the physicist, her smirk only widening when she earned yet another laugh; she pulled her close for another short kiss, then the physicist rested her head on her girlfriend’s shoulder, letting out a happy sigh as she felt Holtzmann’s hand tenderly caress her back.

Both Holtzmann and she knew that there was still much they had to learn about what had happened to the engineer; Holtzmann had come to terms with it fully though, and so had the other three, the blonde feeling relieved at how easily Patty and Abby had handled her transformation.

She wondered how this new state would influence her life, in the future, and the life of her fellow Ghostbusters; she wasn’t worried anymore though, knowing that, whatever would happen, she’d be able to deal with it – especially as long as she had Erin and her friends by her side, and from the way Erin looked up at her and smiled at her, with warmth and something which could be love in her eyes, Holtzmann figured that her girlfriend wouldn’t leave her side anytime soon.

“I’m glad things worked out that way”, she said out loud, rubbing Erin’s back to make it clear what she was talking about; clearly, Erin got it, since she smiled and nodded, and they kissed for a third time before Erin relaxed against her again, staying close to her for the rest of the drive, making her feel happy and content about herself, her wolf and the future Erin and she would have together.

End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! This is it :) I have a few vague ideas for a sequel, so there might be more of Wolf!Holtz in the near future, hehe. Thanks for going on this ride with me, I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing it! :D


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